Pool Fleet Management is a valuable tool to maximise efficiency in fleet operations and ensure managers know the location and status of the vehicles in their fleets at all times.

That’s the assessment of Saul Parsonson (pictured), managing director of Logical, a veteran of the fleet funding and fleet management industry.

Logical added online Pool Fleet Management (PFM) to the portfolio of products that it offers towards the end of 2013. The fleet management company chose CD Auction Group as its PFM supplier as part of a wider working relationship with the online remarketing specialist.

“We use the CD Auction Group system to know where a vehicle is located, whether it’s due in, or out, and, most importantly, whether a particular vehicle is available to allocate to a driver,” explained Parsonson.

“It’s not as simple as just looking at a car and assuming it’s available – it could be booked out for the next day or awaiting repair. What CD Auction Group’s system does rather neatly is allow us to list vehicles and have an overview of their status in real time.”

But it’s not just about the cars and their availability. The CD Auction Group online portal also matches vehicles with driver grades and location so cars are never booked out to the wrong user – or, even worse, double booked.

A valuable function of the CD Auction Group portal is that it allows Logical to move vehicles around the UK to the right location and it also manages refurbishment and preparation.

“It’s very important, if a vehicle is being re-allocated, that the new driver gets the car in good condition and looking nice. We use the system to ensure the refurb instructions are send down the line to make it work,” says Parsonson.

“The system is pretty simple to use and this service is going to grow, grow, grow. It solves several challenges for us: the availability test, the logistics of the pool fleet and the refurbishment. All those things are done.”

Adding Pool Fleet Management to the Logical portfolio of products, should a client require it, was a natural extension of the company’s existing close working relationship with CD Auction Group.

The Logical business model is to offer a full suite of fleet management services, from acquisition and funding through ‘in-life’ to disposal, from a carefully selected panel of suppliers. In that way, Logical can tailor a package to exactly suit the end-user requirements and remain independent in its decision making to offer the best value.

It’s an approach that has seen the company grow to have 8,000 vehicles under management since it was established in 2006 to fill a gap in the industry.

Logical has invested substantially in its proprietary online system, SIMS, which manages the approved supplier base and allows Logical to make decisions on behalf of its customers.

The outcome is a single point of contact for the end user and a most suitable solution from the range available.

Alongside Pool Fleet Management, Logical uses CD Auction Group for much of it in-life and end-of-life refurbishment and as one of its major vehicle sales outlets, especially where a more personal and specialist service is required.

“My assessment is that CD Auction Group is very good at personal intervention,” says Parsonson. “There are certain projects where you do need people with experience to see through a plan of action and CD Auction Group do that fantastically well.

“Certainly the feedback from our clients has always been very, very favourable.”

 

More articles on: