The role, responsibilities, and skills required of fleet managers have changed massively over the last decade, said Rory Mackinnon, Sales Director at Holman UK. Fleet managers retain responsibility for the day-to-day delivery of services, but they increasingly play a crucial role in driving the business’s strategy.

Businesses must empower their fleet managers to look beyond the day-to-day – and deliver a roadmap for future success.

Future-proofing fleets

Modern fleet managers must look beyond the short-term and focus on the mid-to-long-term, looking five to seven years ahead. This involves understanding the internal and external factors that could affect your business, assessing their potential impact, and identifying solutions.

We’ve written before about the importance of future-proofing your fleet. A PESTLE analysis is a powerful tool for understanding the internal and external factors affecting your fleets and informing your decisions.

PESTLE analysis highlights how fleet decisions impact all aspects of every business, so managers must include those they will affect. In addition, modern fleet managers must work with internal stakeholders and suppliers to mitigate and manage the risks identified.

That means informing and involving the wider team, including the sustainability director, procurement team, HR, and IT, in conversations. Each area must be aligned to deliver an effective fleet strategy – the fleet manager’s job is to achieve this.

Increasing control

The COVID-19 pandemic illustrates how even the best-laid plans sometimes need to change. Moreover, this highlights one of the critical skills every fleet manager needs: flexibility.

Fleet operators must have control of assets and the confidence and support to change course if things don’t run according to plans. Examples of strategic shocks include massive increases in fuel and energy costs and the resulting inflation that render many calculations and predictions worthless.

To effectively deal with the unexpected, fleet managers must have the flexibility to fund, operate, manage, and dispose of vehicles in changing circumstances. Therefore, flexibility is a core part of new contracts, providing fleet managers with the capability and confidence to scale up or cut down their fleets without crippling economic impact or penalties.

But it’s not just about that macro environment; fleet managers must be able to influence the people within the business. Having the right mix of vehicles will only work with trained and skilled drivers. They must be supported by robust, clear, easy-to-understand policies providing guidance and boundaries.

Driving the future

In 2023, fleet managers will impact almost every area of the business. As a result, they play a critical role in defining the strategy and ensuring the company drives what’s right for the short and medium term. The PESTLE framework is valuable for determining the challenges a business will face. However, given the importance of fleet decisions to business success, it must be more realistic and fair to expect fleet managers to develop a strategy alone.

Instead, modern fleet managers are facilitators, ensuring that every part of the company has a voice and an influence. They must listen and learn, driving decisions that will define the business’s success.

Read more about Holman’s fleet solutions.