There is a lot of pressure when it comes to a fleet’s performance. Government fleets have to master the precise balancing act of keeping vehicles up and running while showing measurable value to administration in order to prove that every decision, from maintenance schedules to replacement cycles, directly contributes to both operational reliability and public service expectations.

But for a fleet looking to improve performance, where to start can seem immense. The fleet industry is an open expanse of challenges with its individual questions and answers.

To help wade through the mess, we looked back at key articles on fleet performance and found, by reading what industry experts had to say, that successful outcomes boiled down to three areas: people, data, and budgets. 

The strongest programs understood how to treat these as a single operating model rather than separate initiatives. Below, you’ll find a breakdown of each area, along with links to the original expert interviews featured in the articles.

People: Capability is the Constraint

It’s no surprise to see that fleet’s evolution has changed the job of fleet teams. However, before fleets can focus on data (we’ll get to that next) or move forward with measures such as electrification, they need to ensure the individuals who make up each operation’s workforce can support these changes for a smooth transition.

Al Curtis, fleet director for Cobb County Fleet Management, said in an article on technician training that for fleets to succeed, training needs to be ongoing.

“As fleets adopt more EVs, training on electric propulsion, high-voltage safety, and EV-specific diagnostics is essential,” Curtis said. “We started very early with electric vehicles and infrastructure; we would not have been able to move so aggressively if it were not for the training of our technicians. They are willing to learn all about these vehicles and charging station maintenance.”

That point is important because training is not just a box to check once new vehicles arrive. If fleets bring in EVs and charging infrastructure without building the in-house skills to diagnose issues and maintain equipment, uptime becomes the problem. In that situation, procurement isn’t the bottleneck; support is.

The same people-first mindset also came up in coverage of Tallahassee’s journey to being named the No. 1 Leading Fleet, where Fleet Director Jeff Shepard talked about what his team prioritized as they built consistency and trust across the organization.

“We want to try and focus on our people,” Shepard said. “We’re focused on investing in the training and our technicians and investing in our customers and keeping an open line of communication.”

Data: The Fleet Office Runs on Information, Not Memory

Now it’s time to talk about data, not quite the elephant in the room, more like the entire herd that followed it in. While data should, in theory, make the day-to-day complexities of a fleet operation easier to manage, the volume of it can also seem to pile on. That’s why having an FMIS that best suits your fleet matters. It helps quiet the noise and keep what’s most important to your operation at the forefront.

In What Do Fleet Tools Look Like in 2025?, Tony Yankovich, director of fleet consulting for RTA: The Fleet Success Company, emphasized the role an FMIS plays in turning fleet activity into usable information:

“The fleet management information system is the key business tool for capturing, storing, and analyzing objective, quantitative data on all fleet management activities,” said Yankovich. “The FMIS allows an organization to centralize fleet-related data, automate processes, and provide data-driven insights that improve decision making.”

That should mean less time chasing information across spreadsheets or emails and more time using consistent data to run the operation.

A solid FMIS is meant to help standardize processes like PM compliance and downtime monitoring in a way that can actually be compared across assets and departments. It should also help fleets walk into budget conversations with receipts, including:

• Warranty dollars that should be coming back.

• Replacement planning data that supports a now rather than later approach.

• Utilization context that explains what’s working hard and what’s just sitting.

At the end of the day, it’s hard to make the case for funding or policy changes if you don’t have data you can trust. But even strong data doesn’t speak for itself if fleets can’t translate it back to mission and duty cycle.

In Advocating for Vehicle Replacements: Asking for What You Need, Kelly Reagan, fleet administrator for the City of Columbus, Ohio, Division of Fleet Management, put it plainly: “Know the fleets better than the end user agencies … Fleet becomes their biggest advocate by knowing even more about their fleet than they know.”

Budgets: Stability Always Trumps Surprise

Even the best maintenance program can get squeezed if forecasting is unrealistic. Fuel is the easiest example because it’s volatile and can swing budgets fast, especially when fleets are locked into service expectations that don’t change just because prices do. 

That reality forces a choice every year: build a budget that’s perfectly “accurate” on paper, or build one that can absorb the hit when conditions change.

Justin Mullins, fleet manager for Sarasota County, Florida Fleet Services, addressed that in a piece that looked at how agencies are using fuel management technology to tighten controls and improve visibility, and he summed it up in plain terms: fuel forecasting is never going to be a clean equation.

“If you’re predicting how much fuel you're going to use, and you’re predicting what the average price is going to be doing during that budget cycle, you can push one or both of those numbers higher to try to cover any unforeseen spikes in fuel prices as long as your upper management and fiscal department in the municipality will let you do that,” Mullins said. For him, budgeting for fuel “is almost more of an art than science.”

The key is that this isn’t about padding a budget. It’s about building assumptions you can defend, explain, and adjust, and that approach doesn’t stop at fuel.

The same logic applies beyond fuel, too. Costs can fluctuate throughout the year, sometimes rapidly, and fleets feel it everywhere. Fleets that plan for that volatility are less likely to get stuck deferring work, cutting corners, or scrambling for emergency funding when the numbers shift.