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SEARCHMENUSEARCHEvery function of a fleet operation is centered on money: acquisition of vehicles/equipment, fuel, maintenance, facilities, salaries, parts inventory, shop supplies, tools, etc. As we all know, the No. 1 problem today (and for the foreseeable future) is the lack of money due to depressed sales and property tax revenues. In an era of belt tightening, there are a number of unintended consequences of efforts to stem budgetary shortfalls.
Read More →I have decided to add some additional content to my blog which I call “ROI or BS” (and you know what BS stands for). The blog entries will consist of analyzing Return-On-Investment (ROI) and performance claims from various vendors that I receive from time to time. Some of the claims I analyzed were compiled to out-rightly deceive, while others conjured-up preconceived assumptions of my operational profile and costs. I will not mention the specific names of the companies or products that I evalua
Read More →With todays reduced manpower and funding levels, several fleet managers that I know have extended their PM Service intervals as a means of coping with their new reality. If you have the time, please respond to the brief questions listed below.
Read More →Many fleet managers are under-appreciated by user groups, senior management, and elected officials. Sometimes, the fleet manager is at fault because he or she does a poor job of promoting themselves and their department to management. When money is scarce and budgets are tight or need to be cut, fleet managers quickly find themselves on the radar screen of elected officials, the local news media, and taxpayer watchdog groups. How do you prove you are doing a good job?
Read More →Beyond what we already have to deal with, reduced manpower and shrinking budgets, there is another element that is making our jobs (or at least my job) more difficult…Public Sector Unions.
Read More →We have all heard of the potential negative consequences of extending our equipment lifecycles to accommodate current budget pressures. For the most part, fleet managers tend to express their concerns about an aging fleet in terms of increased workloads, parts costs, and reduction of return on investment. But there is another aspect to maintaining an aging fleet…the need to attract and retain an experienced workforce.
Read More →What do the cities of Santa Rosa, Calif.; Castle Rock, Colo.; and Sacramento, Calif., have in common? All of them successfully employ fleet advisory boards. The key reason fleet advisory boards are successful is because they offer customers/users a say in managing the fleet. In addition, a fleet advisory board, by its very nature, institutionalizes ongoing communication and helps increase customer understanding of the constraints and challenges facing fleet operations.
Read More →In many instances, when you ask someone what their net worth is they will respond in a monetary value. However, your net worth is not only the amount of money you have in the bank, but also the cumulative value of your skills and abilities that benefits an employer.
Read More →Since I have been posting in my rants I have received some rather interesting replies. Some were worth commenting on, some not. However, I do feel the need to clarify some things.
Read More →In the public fleet industry much has been said about Fully Burdened Labor Rates (FBLR). For some, it is the basis by which they measure their cost competitiveness with the private sector. However, during my tenure as a fleet manager one thing is for sure; all FBLRs are not created equal! Contrary to popular belief there are many different methods of computing a FBLR. As public fleet managers we would like to believe that we are standardized with our public sector counterparts, but that is far f
Read More →I was recently discussing comeback (rework) rates with another fleet manager and decided to share my thoughts with the rest of the fleet community.
Read More →Here’s an interesting tidbit of information for you big government spenders. On June 1, 2010 the national debt stood at 13 trillion dollars. That number increased to 14 trillion dollars on Dec 31, 2010. Putting that time frame into perspective, it calculates out to be: 5,136 hours or 308,160 minutes or 18,489,600 seconds. Now let’s do some easy division…and poof… that equates to a whopping $54,084.00 every second! That’s fifty four thousand dollars added to the national debt each and every secon
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