Properly managing time is a factor Thomas Volt, fleet manager for South Jordan City, Utah, has found to be instrumental in creating efficiencies in his operation. One person can only do so much, and that’s why it’s vital to brainstorm as a team and assign certain responsibilities to those who excel at various tasks.

“We manage so many aspects of our operations that it is impractical, and basically impossible, to do it all efficiently taking the tasks on solo,” he explained.

Here are three aspects of decentralizing or delegating responsibilities he’s worked on with his employees that have lead to improving customer service and job satisfaction.

Shop Scheduling

Volt said the department has now delegated scheduling to a designated technician. It has changed how appointments are made through Outlook calendars, which has clarified the actual assignments of jobs coming into the shop. This removed a bottleneck where everything was funneled directly through the fleet manager’s office, thereby ensuring less downtime, freeing Volt up for other tasks, and providing a feeling of accountability for technicians.

Surplus Auctions

A Level 3 technician is now responsible for creating and uploading auctions. This separated the duties of auction creation and surplus approvals. The technician takes photos and creates the online auction. The approval of the listing and the award/approval of the buyer is done by the fleet manager. It has made for a faster response where two people are relying on and working with each other to do their duties. This separation has improved vehicle listing accuracy as well; having a second set of eyes ensures the information posted is correct.

Parts Rooms

The fleet assistant has been assigned to keep an eye on stock and ensuring needed parts are always on hand, and that the parts room remains organized with inventory controls in place. Volt said the department currently has a project in the works to expand the capacity of the parts room based on the recommendations of a program review.

“We’ve found bottlenecks and inefficiencies by doing in-depth program reviews for each of these functions, and then worked as a team to determine what the best fix would be,” he said.