Finance, facilities, human resources or procurement; there doesn’t seem to be any hard and fast rule as to where a fleet sits in an organisation’s structure.

However, Fleet News has discovered that a third of fleet operations are reporting into their finance departments.

Human resources and personnel was the next most common area for a fleet to report into, accounting for 26% of respondents to the online poll.

But facilities (13%) and procurement (7%) also featured strongly, while 18% of fleets listed a range of other areas, including commercial, logistics, environmental services and their managing director as the area or individual they would report into.

While a myriad of departments may be ultimately responsible for the modern fleet, the nature of the fleet’s role, whether job specific or perk, plays a part as to where they sit.

The size of the fleet and the size of the company it serves also has an impact, especially where smaller companies are concerned.

In the case of Tesco.com, which operates a fleet of more than 2,400 home delivery vans, it’s the nature of the business it serves that has shaped its position within the business.

“Tesco.com fleet is part of grocery operations,” explained Dino Papas, fleet transport manager at Tesco.com. “The way we are set up effectively means we are close to the coal face and our real and internal customers.”

Another one of the country’s largest fleets - the Environment Agency - operates a fleet of around 4,500 cars and 1,600 vans, which are all job need.

Head of fleet operations Mark Ford-Powell said: “We report to corporate assets, who are responsible for fleet, buildings, facilities and estates.”
However, at the other end of the scale is Hannaford. A typical small enterprise, it operates a fleet of 29 vehicles, split 50/50 between cars and vans, and almost as many greys.

The Hannaford fleet historically sat within finance, with the finance director also having sole responsibility for running the fleet.

However, two months ago the fleet operation was moved to sit within HR.

“I have found there’s been a shift in priority,” explained fleet manager Leigh Stiff. “Cost saving, while still important, takes more of a backseat role, while health and safety and duty of care have been under the spotlight a great deal more.”