Resistance is futile!

By: Anonymous Fleet Manager

Do you have staff that never want to change? They’ve been doing the same thing for 25+ years. Do an inspection. Hang a key. Fill out a form. Shift a piece of paper to the other side of the desk. Go have a smoko. Don’t want to know about anything new. It’s like they’re part of the woodwork.

There’s so many things causing organisational change right now and impacting fleet practices! The economy. The environment. Fires. Pandemics. Etc. etc. These forces are relentless and making us take action such as reducing costs, improving utilisation, guaranteeing safety and minimising emissions to name a few. If we don’t evolve we’ll go the way of the Dodo!

The best way to get a handle on this is to achieve step change. Professional development. Improved processes and policies. Fit for purpose vehicles. Leveraging technology. Installing telematics and fleet management software. Getting better information that helps make better decisions. It seems so simple! But it’s not!

Why do some staff resist? Are they trying to prove us fleet managers to be wrong? Maybe they don’t think were up to the task. Do they think they’ll lose some of their comfort? Just hang on until retirement. Surely not!

A word to the wise. If you’re no longer challenging yourself and your organisation to become more efficient and effective then you no longer add value. If you’ve slipped into comfort and you’re just hanging around then you’re no longer contributing to the betterment of the organisation. Either shape up or ship out! Change is inevitable and resistance is futile!  

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 the editor who will pass it on to AFM... when he's in a good enough mood, that is.