Ask Autoglass fleet manager Ged Raymond about the single-most important part of his job and his reply is instant: keeping vans on the road.

However, with barely pause for thought, he adds: ensuring drivers have the right vehicle for the job, customer service, minimising cost and maximising safety. It sums up the multi-faceted role of the modern fleet manager; duties are spread across a wide range of responsibilities and they all have star billing. And a key part of fulfilling that billing is new technology.

It’s a far cry from when Raymond joined the business in 1979. Back then it was written ledgers, no audit trails and very little focus on customer service – the job was simply to fit glass.

Today the fleet operation is fully computerised and its fundamental purpose is to help Autoglass deliver outstanding customer service. Add to that the fact that the fleet has grown in size from just over 300 vehicles to almost 1,700 and the increased level of complexity over the past three decades becomes apparent.

However, one factor has remained constant: the need to keep vehicles on the road. Autoglass handles, on average, 6,300 phone calls a day and serves more than one million customers each year – equivalent to one every 30 seconds; Raymond’s ability to minimise downtime can make or break the business. So, too, can route optimisation; helping drivers to visit more customers per day by streamlining their routes and forward planning.

Improvements here have only become possible with the development of innovative technology, an area in which Autoglass is frequently an early adopter.

All maintenance for the van fleet is undertaken by ARI and Arval on pay-on-use contracts, with strict KPIs on vehicle downtime and operating costs. Pence per mile data shows costs have fallen in real terms over the past decade. “We outsource maintenance because they can do it better than we can and it’s cheaper, especially with a fleet of our size,” Raymond says.

“We’d have to employ four more people to manage it in-house.

“It’s also cheaper than leasing with maintenance because we would have to pay upfront. Compared to what we pay now, with maintenance would cost us about 25% more per year.”

Each Autoglass branch has maintenance charts detailing future service dates – as Raymond says, “prevention is better than cure” – which are checked by the company’s audit teams as part of monthly branch inspections.

Daily driver checks pick up on any smaller issues while speed limiters set at 70mph not only act as a safety measure against excessive speeding, they also contribute to reducing maintenance requirements. Autoglass has long-standing relationships with ARI, Arval and its two leasing providers, Activa (part of Arnold Clark) and Inchcape.

The partnership approach underpins its fleet success, helping to keep a tight lid on costs while improving operational performance. “You have to find companies you can rely on and have full access to accounts as far as your fleet is concerned,” says Raymond.

“That’s easier said than done, but we were small when we started with our current partners and we have grown with them.”

However, long-term loyalty to key suppliers doesn’t make Autoglass a conservative stick-in-the-mud, clinging to its partners through an irrational fear of change: it is constantly looking for the next big thing, often scouring the world for new innovations to trial.
 

Autoglass developed the ‘Little Buddy’ lifting system, which enables one person to fit glass, from a system first seen in America and, more recently, launched the Vanbrella extendable canopy, which enables repairs in wet conditions.

It has also completed a trial of the Ashwoods Lightfoot driver behaviour technology, which is now being rolled out across the fleet.

Lightfoot was introduced to improve driver safety, although the figures suggest the company could cut 10-15% off its annual £7 million fuel bill, which Raymond used as leverage to get the green light for investment.

An additional by-product from cutting out harsh accelerating and braking will be further reductions in maintenance and downtime.

Ultimately, all initiatives that affect downtime and scheduling are all about delivering a better service to the customer, whether private motorist or fleet.

“Customers are more demanding today and in the future they will become even more demanding. We have to be on the front foot all the time regarding technology, the types of vehicles we use and capacity,” says Raymond.

Capacity is a key point: windscreen glass is getting larger; consequently Autoglass has been forced to buck the trend for vehicle downsizing by adding larger vans to its fleet.

This potentially adds cost from highly monthly leases and bigger fuel bills, which Raymond tries to offset by making savings elsewhere. He is also adding more vans, bringing the fleet size to around 1,500 vans (a rise of 100) and 200 cars over the next couple of months.

The Ford Transit is the company’s van of choice, which dates back to when the business was formed in 1972. “They suited our needs then and they suit our needs now,” says Raymond.

“We look after them and they make good money at auction. That’s important for our leasing rate.” Vans are kept for around 47 months – or, as Raymond puts it, “just before the second MOT is due”.

However, he’s flirted with various different operating cycles over the years, everything from two years to the current schedule.

“We are doing much less mileage now – averaging 25,000 miles a year rather than the 40,000-50,000 of 10 years ago. Technology has helped and ClickSoftware is also helping with our route management.” Autoglass operates an open user-chooser policy for its 200 company cars with one eye focused on attracting and retaining the best people.

The policy is divided into five grades, although employees can trade up or down one grade with a subsequent impact on their salary. The replacement cycle is based on mileage – 80,000 to 90,000 – which means cars are replaced between two and four years depending on the user.

All cars are leased on a with-maintenance contract. The scheme’s flexibility makes this funding option the most cost-effective, says Raymond.

“When people have free choice they can choose a car that is very expensive to maintain. If they do choose one which is more expensive, they pay for the difference, which works better on a with-maintenance contract,” he explains.

“It’s the same for residual values; if a poor residual increases the lease price, the employee pays the difference so they can still have their choice of car.” The open-choice policy also helps Autoglass keep its grey fleet to a minimum. It has just 15 cash takers; all are employees that do not want a company car.

Technicians are put through a comprehensive series of training programmes, which begin from day one of employment.

New starters complete a two-week course at the training centre Autoglass has in Birmingham with the results reported back to the business. Annual risk assessments are carried out on all van drivers and technicians which include driving licence checks, accident rates and behavioural reports in order to identify those at risk.

Those individuals are then assessed individually and tailored support and training is put in place. Tailored courses also address those that have had a serious accident, looking at causes and corrective solutions.

Autoglass also operates an incentive scheme. Drivers have a notional pot of money at the start of each year from which cash is deducted if they are involved in an accident. Look after the vehicle and they receive the remaining lump sum at the end of the year.

According to Raymond, the scheme helps to reduce incidents, particularly those bumps and scrapes that affect end-of-contract charges.

He inspects every van when it comes off fleet. Accident damage is repaired, but scratches and dents are negotiated with the leasing company when the vehicle goes back. Autoglass has agreed an excess threshold with its funding providers below which it does not pay for repairs, but it has decided against a profit share scheme on the re-sale value.

“We negotiate a tough price and we want the money upfront rather than at the end of the contract,” Raymond says.

He has a big year ahead in 2014: 750 vehicles are due to be replaced, the most ever in a 12-month period.

Planning is vital, but Raymond acknowledges that there is much that can potentially go wrong when coordinating multiple suppliers, from racking and livery to canopies.

For that reason, he works one month in hand – vehicles due on fleet in March are actually brought on in February. In the second week of January alone, 108 vehicles went out, followed by another 96 on February 1.

Raymond’s team of three helps to ensure smooth operation of the fleet. They have shared responsibility, with in-house services including accident management and parking fines/traffic violations.

“We used to outsource accident management, but we do a better job ourselves,” says Raymond.

“We don’t take vehicles off the road unless they really have to be repaired and a lot of the work is done by Autorestore, which is one of our sister companies.”

This balance of in-house responsibilities and outsourced services ensures Raymond operates a cost-effective fleet by keeping vans on the road, minimising cost and maximising safety.

And it enables the fleet to hit the core objective for Autoglass: outstanding customer service.

Factfile

Fleet manager Ged Raymond
Time in role 34 years
Fleet size 1,700: vans 1,500, cars 200
Operating cycle vans 47 months; cars 80,000-90,000 miles
Funding Contract hire: cars with maintenance; vans without
Funding providers Inchcape and Activa
Maintenance providers ARI and Arval

Ged Raymond was appointed fleet manager at Autoglass in 1979 and describes the company’s journey since then as a “real success story”.

“We went from the back street to operating in 34 countries – we do a job every four seconds somewhere in the world,” he says.

Among the major changes he has seen is the growth in technology, affecting everything from how the windscreen is fitted and bonded to the way the fleet is managed via software.

Vehicle quality has also improved, resulting in service schedules rising from 8,000-10,000 miles to 30,000 miles.

“Breakdowns are very rare,” Raymond adds.

Customers have become much more demanding over that time, but so has Autoglass of its own suppliers.

“Our customers are no different to us; we are more demanding of our suppliers because our customers are more demanding of us,” Raymond says.