How well do you know your fleet?

It is noticeable time and again: Many fleet managers do not know the concrete costs of their fleet. Questions about costs are usually answered with a “rough estimate”.

Yet it is important to know fleet costs per vehicle, per person or per department in a defined period of time (day/week/month/year). And why is this important? To keep an eye on the utilization of the fleet and to identify possible savings potential.

Fleet costs: variable and fixed costs

Fleet costs consist of a mixture of variable and fixed costs. These include, for example, leasing or rental costs, insurance, personnel costs, vehicle taxes, maintenance costs, motorway tolls, fuel costs, repairs and tyres – to name just a few.

Variable costs in particular often contribute to unbudgeted expenses. Increased fleet operating costs are therefore usually a thorn in the side of management. As a result, fleet managers quickly come under pressure to reduce costs and optimise administrative processes in order to find even the smallest leak in the fleet budget.

At this point, most fleet managers reach their limits, because many administrative processes are still managed manually in Excel spreadsheets and do not offer any transparency.

Do you know your fleet costs exactly?

Willem Schonewille, Managing Director and Sales Manager of WeGo Carsharing GmbH, often comes across the same answers when he asks about the concrete costs of the company’s own fleet: “Something like… approx. xx,xxx EUR per month” or “By rule of thumb… I estimate approx. xxx,xxx EUR per year”.

“It surprises me again and again that many fleet managers cannot precisely quantify the costs of their own fleet. Usually leasing rates are still known, maybe also the costs of insurance, but after that it usually becomes opaque”, says Schonewille.

But it could be so simple…

Create transparency and reduce fleet costs with WeGo

If you want to save money in your fleet, you should definitely have an overview of all the areas where money is spent. Knowing your figures not only makes everyday life easier, it also makes it easier to identify potential savings.

Typically, cost unit accounting serves as an important basis for calculating exactly how much it costs to use a particular vehicle in the company’s own fleet.

There are many ways to reduce fleet costs. In addition to targeted refuelling, keeping inspection appointments, negotiating leasing rates and comparing insurance policies, it is also worthwhile to use fleet management software that facilitates many administrative tasks and thus saves personnel costs.

The software solution from WeGo Carsharing Solutions automates and digitalizes processes that require a great deal of time for fleet managers to manage, such as:

• The reservation of vehicles
• Handing over keys
• Keeping a logbook
• Allocating vehicle damage or fines
• Driving license checks
• Creating reports
• Assigning cost centers per department
• The issuing of invoices

In addition, the WeGo software provides a detailed insight into the utilization of the connected vehicles. Through the targeted use of the various reporting options, the degree of utilization of the respective vehicles can be precisely analyzed – thus the fleet manager can determine whether all vehicles are sufficiently used and required or whether, if necessary, vehicles in the fleet can even be reduced.

Time is money

The above-mentioned activities represent a time-consuming administrative effort that should not be underestimated. The WeGo mobility solution not only simplifies processes, but also saves time. Besides the fact that the fleet department benefits from the time saved through reduced administrative effort, the employees also gain many advantages that save time and relieve the fleet department:

• Viewing vehicle availability (via smartphone app)
• Simple and convenient reservation of vehicles around the clock
• Opening/closing of vehicles via app
• Reporting of vehicle status (damage/ cleanliness/ charge level)
• Automated recording of kilometers driven

Corporate Carsharing: The cost-saving carsharing model for companies

Another option for minimizing fleet costs that should not be ignored is an internal car sharing model.

Companies make the company fleet available to all (or selected) employees – also for private use. Private journeys are settled directly with the employees in an automated way; thus, the income from private journeys can be offset against the leasing or rental costs.

Corporate car sharing therefore not only contributes towards reduced fleet costs, but also promotes green employee mobility… and this should be in the interest of every company nowadays.