Covid-19 creating ‘advance or consolidate’ moment for fleets, says FleetCheck

14 Sep 2020 by Andrew Ryan

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Fleets are using the Covid-19 pandemic as a moment to ‘advance or consolidate’ in their planning for the future, says FleetCheck.

The fleet software specialist says organisations tend to be either pushing forward with plans for strategies such as electrification or adopting mobility solutions, or digging in and making the most of existing resources.

Peter Golding, managing director of FleetCheck, said: “With the coronavirus crisis now in its sixth month, we are starting to see some strong indications of how fleets are planning to approach the next few months as well as into 2021 and beyond.

“It’s an interesting moment because the current situation, while obviously dreadful in most respects, has created time and space for fleets to think and to consider ideas that might once might have been considered too radical to be practical.

“There appears to be a split on whether to advance or consolidate.

“Some fleets are very much doubling down on their strategies for the future, especially around electrification, with some businesses looking to accelerate adoption, and push forward in areas such as EV-based salary sacrifice and handling increased amounts of grey fleet activity.

“The other main approach appears to be to work to contain costs and maximise efficiency as much as possible through sweating existing assets and refining current processes.

“Of course, the difference between these two contrasting lines of thought is very often cash.

“Businesses that want to undertake radical change need to be free to make investments to see them through while those that are facing tougher times are under pressure to make the most of what they already have.”

Golding’s views mirror those of Association of Fleet Professionals deputy chair Stewart Lightbody who told AFP’s webinar on the impact of Covid-19 that the pandemic is a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to change the way organisations think about their fleet operations.

He said: ““Drivers are now less inclined to travel and more inclined to make the right choice, which I think really opens up the opportunity for the EV discussion.

“Less miles and less usage equals that real opportunity to embrace the EV or the alternative fuel vehicle.

“Fleets have the opportunity to escalate and prioritise EVs. If they thought EVs weren’t fit for their business before, they should take the time to review it and it may be that things are different now.

“Out of change comes innovation, and this is a one in a generation opportunity to do things differently.”