Get Out of Your Chair and Walk the Shop

By Mike Antich

As a public sector fleet manager, your primary job is managing assets and services provided to user departments. However, as some fleet managers can attest, as much as 60 percent of their time is consumed by personnel issues. In many respects, this is the hardest part of being a fleet manager.

Last Friday, I was a presenter at the 100 Best Fleets Conference in Oxnard, Calif. My presentation was on the "The 15 Traits of a Great Fleet Manager."

While awaiting my turn to speak, I had the opportunity to listen to other presenters, all of whom were excellent. However, one who particularly impressed me was Frank Morgan, deputy director of maintenance operations for the City of Fremont, Calif. I've known Frank for a number of years while he was fleet manager at Contra Costa County, later the City of Long Beach, and currently, the City of Fremont. Frank, in my opinion, embodies all15 traits of a great fleet manager.

How to Build a Solid Team

The title of Frank's presentation was "Surviving in a Tough Budget Time." However, the part of his presentation that captured my attention was how he manages his staff to build a team esprit de corps.

The ways to build a strong team at your fleet operation are multifold. The first rule is to get out of your chair and walk the shop. Observe what's going on in the shop and in the yard. Talk with technicians and find out what's on their minds. Listen to your staff not only for what they say, but also what they don't say. When legitimate complaints are brought to your attention from the shop floor, support your team by addressing them with management.

It is important to explain your management objectives to all team members. One way Frank accomplishes this is by holding "breakfast with the boss" meetings with groups of team members. During these breakfast meetings, he explains how each staff member fits into the "bigger picture" of what fleet operations is seeking to accomplish. You'd be surprised how many technicians do not have a good understanding of the organization's overall goals and how much they appreciate being included in these discussions. It is also important to continually re-communicate the mission to your team. Once is not enough. It is critical that technicians understand the mission of fleet operations

The best way to cultivate an esprit de corps is to recognize outstanding achievement. When someone does a good job, give them positive feedback. Let others on the team know when someone receives accolades from you. Create clear guidelines on what it takes to get an internal promotion. Create programs to incentivize technicians to enhance their skill sets by attaining ASE certifications.

Dealing with 'Knuckleheads'

If you want to weed out the "knuckleheads" in your organization, it is necessary to create a fair, firm, and consistent shop culture. When dealing with knuckleheads, utilize the minimum amount of discipline to achieve the desired results. You don't want to penalize the whole team for the actions of a few.

"Do not let a few knuckleheads affect shop policy for the whole team," advises Morgan. Annual evaluations should accurately reflect an employee's performance. When dealing with problem employees, follow your organization's progressive discipline policies. If this fails to get them to clean up their act, then issue a "last and final" letter for the most egregious scofflaws.

Educate 'Up'

If you want to earn the respect of senior management, you need to know your total costs, frontward and backwards. This includes knowing the fully burdened labor rates for each technician classification. Likewise, it is important to know how your labor rates compare with the private sector. In today's environment, you must be competitive or outperform the private sector. One problem that occurs senior management compares fleet with the private sector is they are not comparing "oranges to oranges."

One reason for the disparity is the many services public sector fleets provide in a PM that are not provided by a private service provider. If you haven't already done so, you need to develop a comprehensive list of all services included in a scheduled service and make it available to senior management. This will ensure consistency and accountability when you are compared with private sector service providers. To reduce PM costs, set time standards competitive with the private sector. In addition, Frank suggests holding quarterly P.I.T. (preventing interdepartmental trouble) meetings and regularly surveying user departments about customer satisfaction.

Another common problem is senior management often has an inaccurate perception about fleet operations. An easy way to dispel these misconceptions is to get your city manager and council members to tour the fleet facility. Let management know of your team's accomplishments by submitting press releases to be disseminated to the local news media. When the local press writes positive stories about fleet operations, submit them for publication in your organization's newsletter for other employees to read.

Visualize and Execute

As a fleet manager, you need to take time to visualize how your operation would look if you could start with a clean sheet of paper. How would you redesign your shop, yard, and overall fleet program to increase its efficiency and effectiveness? What impediments are currently contributing to vehicle downtime and how would you eliminate them to ensure customer service is the highest priority of your shop? Once you've done this, the next step is to execute a plan to realize this vision. Seize the day.

Let me know what you think.

mike.antich@bobit.com