The perception of a fleet management is often simplistic, and does not do justice to the wide range of responsibilities involved in this essential role. Managing a fleet of vehicles, even a small one, is a major responsibility. complex task which requires advanced skills and the right tools... And it is very often an executive assistant or someone from general services who takes on this activity, in addition to their day-to-day work.
Centralised strategic and management skills
As well as allocating vehicles, the manager is also concerned with optimising the fleet, planning renewals and analysing costs, through rigorous, centralised management of rental and maintenance contracts.
He has to monitor the mileage of vehicles on long-term leases to ensure that they comply with driving regulations. If he comes close to "over-driving", which is very costly, he will examine the whole fleet and reassign the vehicle to an employee who drives less, which implies centralised monitoring of the fleet so that internal adjustments can be made quickly.
They will select suppliers, negotiate insurance, plan vehicle maintenance to avoid costly breakdowns and minimise downtime. What could be more unpleasant for an employee at a police check than to discover that they don't have the right insurance certificate or that the MOT has been 'forgotten'?
And since 2017, with the legal obligation to report offences, it must know the history of assignments so that it can find and designate a driver who has committed an offence. This is not easy if the vehicles are self-service and the schedule is not scrupulously kept...
The skills of a financial analyst to optimise costs!
The manager will keep a close eye on indicators such as the TCO, or Total Cost of Ownership which can be translated as the total cost of owning a vehicle. This includes the vehicle's purchase and resale or lease price, its fuel or electricity consumption, insurance, maintenance, etc., as well as its taxation, which varies from one situation to another.
Green skills to meet legal obligations!
Managers must also ensure that their fleets are greened to reduce CO2 emissions and meet ecological requirements. The LOM (Mobility Orientation Law), accelerated by the Climate and Resilience Law, encourages companies to include a percentage of low-emission vehicles in their fleets and to plan for the installation of charging stations. Hybrid and electric cars should account for 40% of fleet renewals by 1 January 2027, and 70% by 1 January 2030. So it's time to keep up and look ahead!
Is it possible to manage ALL this in Excel?
Many companies manage their vehicle fleets using spreadsheets. But when the size of the fleet increases, Excel files become unreliable, difficult to maintain and not analysis-oriented. The manual management of data and invoices from the various service providers is complex: hire companies, oil companies, motorway operators, tyre specialists, insurers, etc. Nor is it possible to keep track of data flows and ensure traceability.
A dedicated solution enables you to centralise everything, analyse your fleet and optimise it, get an overview of the greening of the fleet as well as car renewal alerts, simply designate drivers in the event of fines and have customisable dashboards at your disposal. Car fleet management is a business in its own right, and is not separate from business travel.. Whether you're a manager or you've been entrusted with a mission, whether your fleet consists of 5 or 500 vehicles, it's essential to be equipped with tools that can assist you in these various tasks and enable the company to get the best out of its vehicle fleet.
Cegid Notilus is the only application on the market that manages both the car fleet and related travel expenses.
