Data management key to driving fleet efficiencies and cutting costs (video)

Fleet decision-makers have been urged to get a grip on their data if they want to drive efficiencies and cut costs.

Data management and analysis are key to mastering fleet efficiency, according to Denise Hawkins, fleet manager at Stannah.

Speaking at Fleet and Mobility Live, Hawkins says it is important to know your data and where it is coming from. She said: “Maybe you have telematics, maybe you have cameras, you have fuel cards. What is your data of where is it coming from?”

Hawkins stresses that the data also needs to be “clean” and “accurate”.

A concept which has made a difference to Hawkins when analysing her data is leading and lagging factors.

A leading indicator is a metric, or an action that can be taken to influence change. A lagging indicator is measure that can only inform; it can inform as you go, or it can inform what has already happened.

She explained: “If you are looking within a fleet, there are going to be examples of what your leading factors are, what your actions you can take to make change are, and what you can measure and monitor, and look at the past, to see your progress as you go.”

Hawkins covered a range of areas in the seminar at Fleet and Mobility Live (see the whole debate by clicking the video link below), including how working with suppliers is vitally important.

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“Collaboration really is key,” said Hawkins. “You don’t want it to just be a service, it’s not a one-way thing anymore, because of the way fleet is changing so drastically and so dramatically in the past few years and it will continue to do so.

“It has to be more fluid and a partnership where we’re working it out together.

“Suppliers haven’t got all the answers; the fleets haven’t got all the answers, but together, getting there is really key.”

Head of fleet at National Grid, Lorna McAtear, believes collaboration with suppliers is also vital. “We have to talk, we have to engage, and the suppliers need to do a lot of that,” McAtear told delegates at Fleet and Mobility Live.

Whatever methods you employ, however, Calum Slowther, head of enterprise and global operations at Zego, says fleet efficiency is not about reinventing the wheel.

“I think about it from the total cost of ownership perspective; working down the stack, looking at what's driving the greatest percentages of the cost of running a fleet.

“Generally speaking, there are two big ones, depreciation or financing, and fuel, and then there's maintenance and insurance.

“Those four between them account for three-quarters of the cost of running a fleet.”

If a fleet wishes to have a real impact in driving efficiency and reducing costs, Slowther stressed it is going to come from one of those four areas.