Australian business managers and government administrators are equipping themselves and their enterprises to meet the challenges of rapid change, greater efficiency and increased competition in a global economy.
This requires managers to review the costs of delivery of their goods and services and one of the largest expense items of any business enterprise or government agency is the acquisition cost and operating expense of the motor vehicle fleet.
The benefits of assigning the management of the vehicle fleet to a professional fleet manager are:-
Fleet management companies are totally focused on one core business activity.
Administrative costs can be reduced as fleet management companies have negotiated labour rates and the cost of parts across their national spread of vehicle service providers.
They can provide detailed reporting on the cost behaviours and cost comparisons across the fleet managers total fleet base.
The combination of an Operating Lease incorporating a fleet maintenance and management package has proven to be the most popular approach to outsourcing the management and financing of the vehicle fleet. This combination provides the advantages of:-
Fixed known costs - with the lease rental and vehicle running costs covered in one monthly rental for the term of the lease.
No exposure to the diminution in asset value at the maturity of the lease.
Some fleet Lessors can arrange a sale and leaseback of the fleet injecting working capital back into the enterprise.
In many applications balance sheet ratios are enhanced.
A fully maintained and managed Operating Lease facility will generally comprise the following components:-
1. Vehicle acquisition - the fleet lessor/manager will organise the purchase of vehicles.
2. Vehicle maintenance and Servicing.
3. Vehicle registration.
4. Tyres and batteries.
The fleet management component of the fully maintained Operating Lease provides a Lessee with the comfort of knowing that all services and repairs will be undertaken after they have been authorised by the fleet manager.
In today's competitive fleet leasing and management market, many fleet Lessors
provide a wide range of enhancements to their services. Many will assign a specific
account manager whose responsibilities are to monitor the performance of the fleet and
provide assistance in determining administration policies, selection of vehicle types and
optimum lease terms.
Additional services that can be incorporated are:-
Fleet charge cards
Fuel cards
Fringe Benefits tax reporting
24 hour road side assistance
Accident Management Services
In support of salary packaging arrangements for managers a fully maintained Novated Finance Lease facility is also available from some fleet Lessors.
By outsourcing the financing and management of the vehicle fleet as a single comprehensive package, managers of a business enterprise or government instrumentality are relieved of this very complex, often emotive and time consuming activity.
*KEN SMALL SENIOR MANAGER FLEET LEASING
AGC FLEETPAC
Disclaimer
The purpose of this database is to provide a full-text record of all articles that have appeared in the CDJ since February 1997. It is aimed to assist in the research and reference process. The database has a full-text index and will enable articles to be easily retrieved.It should be noted that information contained in this database is in pre-publication format only - IT IS NOT THE FINAL PRINTED VERSION OF THE CDJ - therefore there might be slight discrepancies between the contents of this database and the printed CDJ.