Shane Curran is an industry veteran, and APAC Director for consulting group Connector. Shane has worked for FMOs or their vendors for over 30 years, he knows their business as well as anyone in Australia. These days he advises Fleet Managers on cost reduction strategies, efficiency improvement and advice on preparation for a more mobile future. We asked him for his top tips for Australian Fleet Managers in 2020.
Tip 1. Car sharing is not dead: it’s resting
The Coronavirus shutdowns put a dent in car-sharing, but that’s temporary. A typical fleet car will cost somewhere in the region of around $30,000.00. How many ops managers would still be in their job in they bought $30,000 in machinery that was only used for an hour a day? How about if they bought several hundred of those machines? We only tolerate this because they’re cars and that shouldn’t be an excuse.
Tip 2. Smart Cities are real and you can’t take your car
Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane are all a long way down the Smart Cities path. We’ve already seen in Europe that this is likely to result in cars being banned from the inner city. You need to be working now on a solution for this today. What’s your two-year plan for inner cities in Australia?
Tip 3. Make friends with your HR Director
One of the biggest trends we’ve seen in Europe is the convergence of HR and Fleet. It might not sound intuitive, but it’s a direct result of growing mobility options and the trade-off between benefits and tools of trade. Some of our biggest projects in the last 12 months have focussed on reducing costs while maintaining employee satisfaction with mobility packages.
Tip 4. Get a robot to run your fleet
There are still way too many fleets that are run with spreadsheets and post-it notes. There are so many good software options available and the best of them now Artificial Intelligence to make decisions for the fleet. Effectively there is a robot doing the work for you. More than that, the cost of this sort of software has plummeted in recent years. For a few dollars a month, it pays for itself at lightning speed.
Tip 5. Hire me.
It might sound a bit brash, but it’s a fact that in Australia we don’t often hire in experts for fleet. Whether it’s Connector (my company) or someone else, the value of bringing in expertise is so strong that it’s pretty much the norm in many parts of the world. Hit me up for a chat and I’ll explain what we can do.
Contact: [email protected] or call 0467 852 429
