Alain Primeau: What’s Up For The Fleet Industry During The Summertime?




What’s up for the fleet industry during the summertime?

In most areas of our industry, summer is the best time of the year to catch up with what you haven’t been able to do during the other ten months. Our Affiliates’ community, with your preferred vendors, is no exception. It’s certainly the best time of the year to use their services in several areas.

Training: Mechanic technicians are more open and relaxed to hear about new products, material, and techniques that could help them keep up with the evolution of our industry. Many suppliers have Web-based training that could be done off-site or directly in your garage. A good business practice would be to print a work order for your technician to schedule a 30 to 45 minutes training session.

Heating and cooling: Trying new products and testing new methodology in the heating and cooling sector should be done during the summer. A company like Gates, for example, is offering many resources to meet with fleet managers and review best practices and ways to save money, increase efficiency, and become more "green friendly."

Fleet Managers: For a Fleet Manager, summer is the best time to request information from suppliers. They have more availability and they are always willing to meet with Fleet Managers to discuss how fleet performance can be improved.

Partnership: Your Affiliates are your partners. Your concerns become their concerns and it’s up to you to share them.

In each area of our industry, fleet challenges are different.
Products: Summer can be tough on some products, such as batteries, for example.
Freon is a big expense during summer. Have you ever thought about buying your Freon by yearly booking? It could be a way to save money.

Inventory: Many fleets have static inventory. That’s a sleeping asset and it’s very costly for the fleet, just in paid interest, to hold it on the shelves. Do you need the same inventory mix in summer than in winter? Certainly not, but who is really managing it in a seasonal way? Unless you have dedicated staff and a system to do it, not too many fleets will.

Preventive maintenance: Summer is certainly a great time of the year to do up-fitting and preventive maintenance. Service providers are less busy and can free up their best technicians to work and inspect your vehicles. With good inspection programs, you could save a lot of money, simply by not having to manage breakdowns, losing vehicles for days. Budget-wise, a good inspection program will tell you what you need to budget for the following months.

In all of these cases, Affiliates are there to help you, to provide guidance to ideas and products, and to present solutions to fleet administrators.

Affiliates, vendors, and suppliers form a whole in the fleet industry community. Today, selling a product or a service is only the conclusion of a solution brought to you in a specific area where you are looking to improve.

In many companies, the partnership created between Affiliates and the fleet community is a critical component of a fleet strategic planning. In the near future, the fleet industry will be facing a reality: a shortage of technicians. The results of that will be an increase in labor work and the non-availability of the workforce. If your partnership is not already created, you will be waiting for your vehicles. The industry will have too many vehicles to maintain for the number of technicians.

There are solutions:
  1. Preventive maintenance to avoid breakdowns
  2. Create a strong partnership with your service providers
  3. Train your technicians and give them the best tools available
"Customers vs. suppliers" will not be good enough. It will have to be Affiliate partners and fleet, teaming together with one goal in mind.

NAFA Affiliate Committee Vice Chair Alain Primeau is National Director of Sales for UAP NAPA, Canada.