Lack of benefits and support hamper introduction of mobility strategies: Fleet200 debate

A lack of appropriate and attractive benefits and the limited availability of supportive tools is hampering the introduction of mobility strategies to sit alongside the traditional – and familiar – company car in businesses.

The myriad challenges were discussed at the June Fleet200 meeting that took place at this year’s Company Car In Action at Millbrook Proving Ground.

A summary of the discussion:

• Expense management is key factor in decision making for travel solutions. The process of signing of expenses has placed more accountability at the feet of line managers rather than the employee
• There is a gradual move away from fuel cards which is increasing across corporate fleets
• Mobility solutions are heavily influenced by what employees are willing to pay and total cost of journeys incl. personal journey time
• One of the biggest challenges is in encouraging flexibility of travel with limited tools e.g. software, applications, resources. There is a need for appropriate benefit packages to support further development in this area
• Currently online tools are being utilised but the technology is not ready i.e. ability to display all possible transport journey combinations and solutions.
• Taxi services such as Uber are becoming increasingly utilised amongst large corporate fleets due to the ease of access and potential business cost savings.
• There is a view however, that travel management companies are saturating the market with a plethora of transport options while leasing companies view mobility solely as a hire rental service and have acted accordingly, promoting services such as flexi-rental solutions. OEMS are diversifying their products and services (mainly around value added services e.g. telematics) to tackle growth in downtime of personal vehicles and increased fear of future vehicle sales
• There is a need for appropriate benefit packages to support development of mobility solutions
• A few innovative ideas such as gamification (rewarding safe driving metrics) are encouraging more travel through car sharing and other incentivised car offerings. However, company cars still represent mass appeal to employees as they do not want to completely give this up.
• Instead, there is an increasing demand for mobility cards which will enable employees to hire cars and allow for the organisations to monitor their travel data.
• A different approach is required for job need drivers as they face challenges in deciding criteria for cash allowance and MaaS
• There has been a general shift over the last 20 years amongst corporate travel schemes from only offering company cars to company cars and cash allowance and now potential MaaS.
• Although car clubs are also being utilised amongst urban based organisations, there is still a challenge around availability of appropriate car parking spaces.