There are many mistakes made by organisations that have a negative impact on the cost and performance of their fleet. Here are some examples:

Selecting the wrong brand

One of the simplest mistakes made by not for profits is the selection of the wrong brand of vehicle.  There are two simple mistakes that an organisation can make, the first is in limiting your choice based on brand bias.  

Personal Choice

By selecting a vehicle based on what you believe is the best choice based on your own personal preference, you can limit your ability to make savings, provide safer vehicles and the cost of ownership for the fleet.

Australia has over 60 brands of vehicles available, which makes manufacturer selection difficult if you don’t have the necessary expertise and knowledge.

Non Fleet Brands

Another mistake we see is organisations purchasing vehicles from manufactures who don’t operate in the fleet space.  As such the organisation pays full retail for their fleet, not realising there are discounts of $5,000 and above available from manufacturers who do target the fleet market.

Keeping vehicles to long

We see this occurring in many not for profits.  The concept is that once the vehicle is fully depreciated the vehicles cost to the business is minimised and as such they are better off keeping the vehicle for an extended period.

The reality of this situation is the organisation pays more for vehicle repairs as the maintenance costs climb over time.  Vehicles spend more time off the road leading to increased costs for hire vehicle and staff downtime.

To many accidents

One aspect of the not for profit sector is their focus on looking after their valuable staff.  This is to be commended as these people provide very specialist support to those in need.  

Unfortunately staff are not always reprimanded for minor accidents and in cases where the vehicle operates out of satellite offices management won’t be aware of the damage sustained to vehicles.

By monitoring driver performance and vehicle daily inspections  Sage Fleet are able to dramatically reduce the number of accidents. This then leads to lower insurance premiums, less vehicle down time and the associated costs.

Using Grey Fleet and not company cars

Another common perception for not for profit organisations is the ability to save money by having front line staff drive their own vehicle, paying them a cents per kilometre fee, and not having to purchase a company car.

If you have an efficient fleet however then the cost of providing a company car can save you substantial money.  

The key indicator for the switch from kilometre allowance to owning a company vehicle for a driver is 16,000 kilometres per year based on a payment of $0.73 / kilometre. If your driver is travelling more that this then you are better off having company cars.

The other advantage to having company vehicles is that staff would rather drive a new company car as opposed to increasing the kilometres of their own vehicle.  

This can be a distinct advantage in both sourcing and retaining good staff.