I have whinged about mechanics, operators, management, HR Departments and suppliers over the past year, but now it is time to take a look in the mirror. 

How many of these whinges are something that we can control?

Last month I whinged about suppliers; however, who is at fault if we allow them to deliver items that are not compliant with the specification? Perhaps it’s the fleet manager.

We whinge about fleet management software; however, if we ask why five times we generally get the correct answer – and it's probably because we failed to set the data up in the first place or allowed poor discipline to corrupt the system.

If we take a step back and look at the root cause of some of these issues, it may well identify that some of our practices, or lack of, may have contributed to the problem.

So, following on from my final comment last month: wake up fleet manager, we control the processes and set the standard. Time to shape up!

To stop our Anonymous Fleet Manager (AFM) blowing a gasket, we created Internal Combustion, a monthly column for fleet-related rants that lets him blow off some steam. Got a fleet gripe you'd like to get his opinion on? Email emily.ditchburn@ipwea.org and she'll pass it on to AFM – when he's in a good enough mood, that is.