Rob Wilson, Manager IPWEA FLEET

How well do you understand the utilisation of your fleet? Understanding utilisation is fundamental to effective and efficient fleet management – but it’s not as simple as kilometres travelled or hours of operation.

Understanding utilisation enables you to budget for fuel, tyres and maintenance. It helps you plan for the replacement of the asset, it is essential in establishing hire rates and at a fundamental level helps you understand whether the asset is required at all.

Traditionally, utilisation analysis was based on kilometres travelled or hours used. If that’s all you’ve got, then really the data will only flag assets that warrant further investigation. Take the scenario of two passenger cars. Vehicle A travels 8000km per annum and Vehicle B travels 37,000km per annum. Which one is better utilised?

Well, the data only tells us that we need to look more closely. I’ve seen this kind of scenario before, with people jumping to the obvious position that Vehicle A is not required. But say, on further analysis, Vehicle A is shown to be an essential asset, delivering critical community services in a section of a densely populated municipality – it travels a few kilometres, the driver spends an hour with a vulnerable member of the community and then travels a few kilometres to the next hour-long appointment.

By contrast, Vehicle B demonstrated nearly 90% commuter use. This is fine if it’s a deliberate decision to provide a commuter use vehicle for operational or other valid reasons. The point is, kilometre and hour data does not provide enough information to make fully informed decisions.

What are the other influences on utilisation data?

Idle time: If you’re using an hour meter for engine hours, how much of the running time is idle time? (That is, the vehicle running but not providing any necessary functionality.)

Criticality of asset: Sometimes availability trumps utilisation. You have the asset because you need it when you need it. This situation begs the question about short-term hire, but sometimes a hire asset is not available or doesn’t have the functionality you require.

Ancillary equipment: Sometime an asset will show low kilometre utilisation but be used on-site for hours each day to drive a pump, generator or other ancillary item.

GPS and telematics are now readily available and provide a high level of information about how, where and when your fleet assets are used. Sure, there is often resistance from drivers about loss of privacy and from others about the cost of the equipment and related services, but these arguments are dissipating over time. Privacy is being dealt with through formal agreement between management and staff about the use of data and unit costs are coming down.

Experience tells us that if you are introducing GPS or telematics, you need to treat it as a project and change-management program. Plan and resource the implementation, engage with stakeholders, monitor and actively manage progress. This approach will deliver better results and a better return on your investment.

Once in place, telematics provides a raft of other benefits beyond utilisation data, such as safety for staff, security of assets, an aid to driver training, operational planning and pool vehicle management. If you haven’t already, now may be the time to think about implementing telematics in your fleet.