Gary Lykins serves as the fleet manager, shop supervisor, and lead mechanic for the Town of Jonesborough. Although he has 20 years of experience in various roles in the automotive and equipment industry, his tenure with the Town of Jonesborough has been the most challenging and fulfilling position of his career.
Typically, a small fleet will have fewer people performing more duties, and that requires a staff that understands the magnitude of their responsibilities.
When most people think of the word green in relationship to fleet management they think less of the color and more of the environmental concept. It’s hard to put a finger on the exact point in time when the definition of green changed, but change it did, and with that change came a new battle flag for environmental stewardship.
Image matters. Of course we can find instances where function over form seems more prudent but over all a lot more folks will see a piece of equipment than will ever actually use it.
If you are reading this blog chances are you have been to enough fleet manager training seminars to be familiar with the anecdotal instructions for how to eat an elephant…One bite at a time…Right?
Look among the most important insights a fleet manager must have for success and you will find a keen awareness of the difference between the goals of a customer and that of leaderships. Fleet managers are in a constant state of unsteadiness as they endeavor to walk the tightrope of production and expense.
Productivity has been defined as the ratio between opportunity and accomplishment. Most if not all municipal garages suffer from a poor public image, the conventional wisdom is that a private service vendor can outperform the slow wheels of progress in a government facility. In an effort to validate this facility’s competiveness in the market a fully burdened labor rate was established.
Productivity has been defined as the ratio between opportunity and accomplishment. Most if not all municipal garages suffer from a poor public image, the conventional wisdom is that a private service vendor can outperform the slow wheels of progress in a government facility. In an effort to validate this facility’s competiveness in the market a fully burdened labor rate was established.
Productivity has been defined as the ratio between opportunity and accomplishment. Most if not all municipal garages suffer from a poor public image, the conventional wisdom is that a private service vendor can outperform the slow wheels of progress in a government facility. In an effort to validate this facility’s competiveness in the market a fully burdened labor rate was established.
Take a look at your Utilization through a set of fresh eyes by simply asking yourself the question; “Is the asset working for you of against you?”
It is easy for a fleet manager to identify with the image of a donkey with a carrot dangled in front of him while a rider in his cart beats him with a stick. It is said that this “motivational image” is meant to keep us in a perpetual state of motion.
It is a long held proverb in the public sector that “’the number of philosophies on government is greater than to the number of philosophers on government.” This being said, it is especially natural for me to apply the word customer when describing relationship the residents of Jonesborough have with the town government. The Town of Jonesborough is expected to meet certain obligations in return for taxes paid.
Equipment replacement is expensive…Enough said?… Not so fast. Equipment replacement can be an enormous financial benefit when done correctly. The concept of equipment replacement shares equivalence between productivity and cost. It is very easy to imagine a piece of equipment costing too much to be worth purchasing.
Small fleets have a dilemma when it comes to life cycling, a small geographic area will traditionally allow for a longer lifecycle in years but the technological life of an asset is getting shorter and shorter.
In the day to day operation on a fleet a fleet manager is often asked to lend their “expert” opinion to a situation. In some cases a fleet manager may not have any more knowledge that the next guy about the best practice for the given circumstance.
I would like to introduce a new PM acronym to fleet management; behold, the Preemptive Model. One may think a small fleet has unlimited opportunities to manage each piece of equipment in an individual manner and for the most part they would be right, but there is a fundamental problem with the micromanagement of equipment in a small fleet.
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