If You Only Get One Nice Thing-Make it Your Software
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?
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?
I recently posed a similar question to myself, “how does one feed someone an elephant?” Well; It turns out the answers have some similarities but it requires a little more work. First one has to cook the elephant just right, then purée the disgusting parts in to something digestible, serve it when they are hungry, oh, yeah! It always helps to serve some ice-cream on the side, and then carefully and ever-so-gently feed it to them when they aren’t expecting it… one bite at a time.
The enormous data generated by modern fleet management software can be overwhelming even to a fleet manager so try to imagine how it would look to someone who isn’t clear on what is meant by on-road and off-road equipment. The Town of Jonesborough has recently acquired a fleet management system provided by Collective Data. The nearly effortless use of their software allows for what I would describe as “Passive Data Collection”. Since implementing the software we have been able accurately track so much important data;(information that was simply unknowable before the Collective Data Software), it can be difficult for a fleet manager to decide which bite to feed the leadership first.
My solution to the elephant conundrum: I have been inserting one unsolicited data set per month in to my monthly report. Fleet composition one month, labor disbursement by equipment type the next and then predictive maintenance vs repair the next. While this type of information is rarely understood to its fullest by anyone looking at a monthly report, it can generate some good questions and more importantly it lets everyone know we are on top of things here in our small fleet.
Special thanks to the folks at Collective Data for their product and for their unparalleled support.
More Blog Posts
Encouraging Ownership Among Employees
Typically, a small fleet will have fewer people performing more duties, and that requires a staff that understands the magnitude of their responsibilities.
Read More →"Making" it Green
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.
Read More →Get Out In Front
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.
Read More →Kind of a Drag
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.
Read More →The ins-and-outs of Outsourcing
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.
Read More →The ins-and-outs of Outsourcing
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.
Read More →The ins-and-outs of Outsourcing
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.
Read More →Utilization in a Small Fleet
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?”
Read More →Same Stick New Carrot
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.
Read More →Customer Service
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.
Read More →