Safety rating synchronicity

By: Anonymous Fleet Manager

So let’s see. We’ve got our fleet safety policy in place. Check! We order our Prado’s with 5-star ratings per stakeholder requirements. Check! We’ve got our 10-year replacement plans in place. Check! We’ve got a stack more of the top selling four-wheel-drive wagons on order due to lead times. Check!

All Good...WRONG!

Umm, these new Prados (and the ones on our fleet register) have been stripped of their 5-star rating. But they’re still in demand, still on sale, and still on order. What the…?

They’re not the only ones too. Navara’s, Pajeros, Passats, Tritons, etc. Why? Because of the introduced ANCAP expiry dates, which are out of synch with the current generation of models on offer.

It’s simply uneconomic for OEMs to put this generation of vehicles through a new round of crash safety testing so late in their cycle.

So here’s the dilemma. We need to change our existing order to something comparable. Untested. Stakeholders not happy! Or we change our fleet safety policy to accommodate unrated vehicles. Well, that’ll go down like a lead balloon with the Board!

Let’s get some common sense with these expiring safety ratings. Either consider commercial constraints or sunset unrated vehicles. Being out of synch with commercial cycles has caused a real snafu!

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.