Effectively managing your fleet with the
Annata Dynamics FLEET solution
A company’s fleet can be made up of many vehicle or equipment types, anything that needs to be tracked from initial purchase through to the date of disposal. The efficient management of the fleet is important to control costs whilst ensuring that the fleet is operated within the law and above all else, operated safely. A wide range of functions can be included in the definition of ‘fleet management’, including: financing; maintenance; telematics (tracking and diagnostics); driver management; fuel management; health & safety management etc.
Different types of organisations will need different combinations of the functionality mentioned above, depending on the type of fleet that they are managing:
• Leasing company ‘selling’ services to customers • Own fleet of vehicles and/or equipment
• Cash fleet of cars (where the employee has been given a cash allowance to buy their own car) • Grey fleet of cars (where the employee uses their own car for business purposes)
As an example, a leasing company will need to purchase vehicles and setup contracts (normally invoiced with a monthly charge, perhaps with an additional charge for a ‘service pack’), manage the income received for the contract, look after the vehicle fleet through scheduled maintenance and repairs, communicate with the driver (to arrange servicing or to inform of a recall pending), handle speeding or parking tickets, manage the end of contract processes and dispose of the vehicle through re-marketing activities. Understanding the ‘whole-life’ cost of the vehicles is crucial as these costs could form a major element of the charges on future contracts.
If an organisation is managing their own fleet they obviously do not need to have the ability to send out monthly invoices but many of the other aspects still apply. In addition to the controls around the vehicle / piece of equipment they will also need to consider the driver / user. Increasingly these demands are the same whether we are considering a company’s own fleet or a mixture between own, cash and grey fleets.
Ultimately this comes down to being able to show a ‘duty of care’ towards the driver, other road users and even pedestrians – should an accident occur. To be able to demonstrate this duty of care it is vital to be able to show accurate record keeping, policies and processes around such areas as driver training, insurance, communications and maintenance. This is coupled with the ability to manage the whole-life cost of a vehicle / piece of equipment in an ‘owned’ fleet.
This white paper will look at the challenges that face an organisation balancing the needs to show a duty of care as well as controlling the whole-life costs relating to operating a vehicle / piece of equipment. The white paper also discusses the importance of having flexible and adaptable software, such as the Annata Dynamics FLEET solution, to be able to meet not only current but also future demands, as the business needs change or new legislation is introduced.
Duty of care
In recent years legislation has been introduced in many countries to strengthen the powers to target company directors as well as their drivers in cases of road deaths involving vehicles that are being used on company business. Increasingly, Police are treating road deaths as an ‘unlawful killing’ and therefore they have the power to seize company documentation and computer records as part of their investigations. They will bring prosecutions against company directors who fail to show that they have clear policies and guidance for their employees driving at work.
In the UK the Health & Safety Executive have said:
The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 is a landmark in law. For the first time, companies and organisations can be found guilty of corporate manslaughter as a result of serious management failures resulting in a gross breach of a duty of care. Company directors may also be unaware that privately owned vehicles used for business journeys are treated in exactly the same way as company owned vehicles – whether the privately owned vehicles are part of the ‘cash fleet’ or the ‘grey fleet’. Directors have an equal responsibility under the law to ensure that these vehicles are also roadworthy and have the correct insurance.
It is also important that companies also have policies that cover ‘driving at work’ in place, that detail each aspect of the vehicle operations in their business, no matter how many vehicles are operated and who owns them. Employees are required to have been briefed and/or trained on the policies and given updates whenever they are reviewed – meaning that only having a ‘paper’ policy is not sufficient (the policies need to ‘live and breathe’ as part of the normal way of doing business). By having policies such as these, directors can reduce the risk of being prosecuted and avoid a possible custodial sentence.
This shows that the driver / user of the vehicle is as important as the vehicle itself.
Vehicle maintenance
OUR CUSTOMER IS IN THE TOP 20 COMPANIES WORLDWIDE FOR THE PROVISION OF EQUIPMENT AND SUPPORT SERVICES TO CONSTRUCTION, MANUFACTURING, INDUSTRIAL, RAIL AND RELATED INDUSTRIES. THE COMPANY HAS A FLEET OF APPROXIMATELY 500K ASSETS THAT THEY NEED TO TRACK THROUGHOUT THEIR ‘LIFETIME’LEADING TOOL HIRE COMPANY
The Workshop module, directly linked to Fleet Management, enables all such tasks to be undertaken. Down time can be limited by managing scheduled maintenance and inspections – ensuring that regular maintenance is known about and can be planned for. The Case module can be used to create job lists that cover all of the manufacturers’ requirements as well as the safety requirements that were mentioned above. Job lists can also include standard hours against each task that needs to be carried out, so that analysis can be done to compare the actual performance of a mechanic against the standard time to carry out a task.
The Service module also includes functionality to effectively manage the workshop or workshops associated with the fleet operation. This includes the ability to manage the workshop load, the people in the workshop, the skills of the team, the rates that should be charged dependent on these skills, track their availability, manage warehouses attached to the workshop for greater stock control on parts, automated parts ordering, etc.
If maintenance is carried out by 3rd party garages then it is equally important that they adhere to the maintenance schedule laid down by the manufacturer. The details of the schedule would be held within the service module and would be assigned to a vehicle (or piece of equipment). It would then be possible for the details to be visible to the service centre through the web portal.
Recalls & Service Campaigns
Having a fleet of well-maintained vehicles is something that is essential for any business. Equally important is a vehicle / equipment fleet that meets all health and safety requirements – as this is crucial avoid legal action and bad press which can easily damage the organizations reputation. The recalls management functionality, provided as standard with Annata Dynamics FLEET, gives the organization the tools that they need to effectively manage the process of making sure that all equipment has all of the latest “fixes” and adjustments requested by the OEM, or equipment modifications that have been identified internally by the company that may have come about following an incident or ‘near miss’.
The functionality of Dynamics FLEET enables a company to track the repairs that are needed on their equipment regardless of where the asset is located. For an emergency recall it may be necessary to carry out the repair immediately – even if it is located on a remote site. For lower levels of recall the repair can possibly wait until the piece of equipment comes in for the next service. The workshop case functionality within Dynamics FLEET is used to ensure that all checks / repairs / alterations required are carried out. The screen shot below shows a summary of all work carried out on a vehicle:
IN THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, ONE OF THE LEAD PARTNERS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE BURJ KHALIFA (THE TALLEST BUILDING IN THE WORLD) USE THE ANNATA DYNAMICS SOLUTION TO MANAGE
THEIR VARIED EQUIPMENT FLEET.
Driver record
As we have seen above, to genuinely show a duty of care it is essential that an organisation has the ability to maintain details relating to the driver of a vehicle or a user of a piece of equipment. These details could be legal requirements: is the user actually allowed to operate the piece of equipment – do they have an up to date
certificate? Other details may relate to a company standard: has the driver of a vehicle carried out an inspection to ensure that the corporate logo is in good condition and clean, alongside checking that all lights are working and other safety related checks?
Other areas could relate to reducing the costs of operating the vehicle: has the driver attended the latest ‘fuel economy’
course or did they read the recent briefing on route planning and have they completed the follow up questionnaire?
All of these areas (and many more parts of the ‘jigsaw’) will help to show a duty of care, should the vehicle be involved in a serious accident and an investigation is carried out by the Police. Basic information such as, who was driving the vehicle at the time of the accident – particularly important for ‘pool cars’ – will be one of the first things that the authorities will want to know.
With the Annata Dynamics FLEET solution it is possible to maintain records such as:
• Licence details – including the ability to display an ‘alert’ if an expiry date is due to be reached • Insurance details – does the employee have the required ‘business use’ insurance and when is it due to expire (again an ‘alert’ can be setup to send an email to both the driver and an administrator 2 weeks before expiry) • Eye tests – has the driver attended / passed an eye test within the past 2 years • Parking tickets – when / where. It would also be possible to send out a questionnaire to the driver to try to find out why they had parked illegally – perhaps the route plan for the day did not allow them adequate time to find a parking space
• Training courses – record which courses have been attended and when. It is also possible to setup training courses on the system and the driver register for these courses ‘on line’
• Speeding tickets – as well as keeping the record it may also be company standard to send out (electronic-ally) a questionnaire to the driver and for them to attend a training course relating to safe driving
The employee record also holds all of the ‘base’ data relating to the driver, as would be expected from any good HR system. The HR module is built in to the functionality of the solution, so it may be possible that an organisation does not need a separate system – with all of the interface hassle and potential expense that might incur.
Within the Dynamics FLEET solution the ‘link’ between the vehicle and the employee record is through the Custodian table (see example screen shot above). This table has the functionality to list all drivers / users of the vehicle or piece of equipment over time – perhaps having the ability to see who was responsible for the vehicle 8 months ago on a particular date, will be useful. The solution uses the concept of ‘active’ and ‘inactive’ users – with a full historical record being kept throughout the ‘lifetime’ of the vehicle.
Whole-life cost
There are many elements that make up the ‘whole-life cost’ of operating a vehicle or piece of equipment. As has been mentioned before this starts with the initial purchase and then continues until the vehicle is disposed of at the end of its lifetime. This will include areas such as:
• Depreciation charges each month • Maintenance costs – less any warranty claims that have been made • Accident / breakdown repairs • Fuel costs – which can be imported from a fuel card supplier • Insurance costs – especially if it is a specialist piece of equipment • Cost of disposal – less the actual sales prices achieved • Etc.
It is important a company has the flexibility to determine the factors that are to be taken into account – both from a Business Intelligence aspect as well as from the information that can be displayed directly from the vehicle (through the statistics ‘view’ that gives a snapshot of the costs at any point in time). This is achieved through the functionality and the reporting ‘cubes’ that comes as standard with the Annata Dynamics FLEET solution. The reporting ‘cube’ drives the standard reports, the ‘self-service’ reporting that is available through Power-pivot in Excel as well as reporting and KPI measures through the Role Centres (over 70 standard roles are available as standard with the solution). The vehicle statistics form can also be setup to take into account the income from monthly invoices that are created for a leasing company.
The screen shot shows an example of the Device statistics screen.
About Annata
Annata is an international management consulting and technology services company. With the combination of deep industry experience and comprehensive capabilities within chosen technology areas, Annata works closely with customers and partners around the world to help them become high-performance businesses.
Annata‘s strategy builds on our expertise in consulting and technology. Adding that to our industry knowledge and the industry specific solutions offering, we help business around the world to undertake high-impact business improvement projects.
Through industry focus and relentless determination to deliver world class technology solutions we have gained trusted status with many of the world’s best known companies. Locally we have earned the trust of businesses of all sizes in many industries. Annata enjoys strategic partnerships with local, regional and global partners who have embraced our technology solutions and created new business opportunities, earning them a preferred status on their own.
Some of the strengths that define Annata and distinguish us from our competitors are:
• Our robust and tested partner organization, including the partner training services, certifications and support model • Our ‘Certified for Microsoft Dynamics’ and ‘Tested for Microsoft Dynamics’ technology solutions • Our extensive industry expertise • Our customer focused service model • Our business technology innovation and effective deployment of business technology advancements to the marketplace • Our long-term commitment to the development of our employees
Annata works with many of the better known brands in the equipment and automotive sectors – either directly through our own operations or indirectly through our worldwide partner network. It may be that a customer in Brazil or another in Sweden are doing something in their business that could be beneficial to your business at some time in the future (whether that is next year or in 5 years’ time) – this is what we mean by ‘sharing best practice’ between organizations around the world. This is the sort of thing that you could miss out on if the decision is made to build an ‘in house’ solution.
Microsoft Dynamics AX & Annata Dynamics IDMS - Functional map
Sales After sales Fleet
Marketing Device Sales Purchase and Mfg. Parts Service Warranty Contracts
Market segmenting Sales acticities Bulk purchase Part catalogs Workshops Recall campaigns Rental contracts
Lead generation Quotations Stock orders Parts classification Service appointments Service campaigns Short term rental
Prospects Model catalogs Custom order Parts replenishment Job quotations Recall letters Long term rental
Oppertuities Multiple Brands Bulk shipments Order types Work orders Standard warranty Rental calendar
Marketing activities Service Configuration & versions Damage inspection Emergency orders Resource planning Extended warranty Delivery inspection Activity Calendar Test drives Consignment stock Advanced supersessions Work calendar Goodwill sarranty Capacity overview Appointments Matching and allocation Device transfers Alternative parts Job lists Inbound & Outbound Repair & Maintenance
Tasks Financial offers Transfer approvals Refurbished parts Standard labor times Dealer self billing
Prospect & Lead Qualification Payment plans Type approvals / Certificates Cannibalization WIP Warranty validation Loan calculation
Marketing Questionnaires Insurance offers Transfer orders Job splitting Automatic charges Payment plans
Marketing campaigns Warranty offers CKD assembly Transit warehouses Service warnings Preliminary invoicing Interest calculated contracts
