What are the Qualities of a Great Fleet Manager?

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What are the Qualities of a Great Fleet Manager?
by Diksha Bhandari Last updated Jun 8, 2023 at
559PM
Whats the definition of a great fleet manager?
Discover the qualities, skills, and
qualifications that would make you a successful
fleet manager. Table of Contents
Great Fleet Managers are not born great, they
grow great! Sounds familiar? Oh yes, you
guessed it right! TheGodfather. The fleet
management industry is not easy to dwell in. It
requires an equal amount of mental, physical and
psychological effort. However, with time and
technology, a lot of stress has been shared by
fleet automation tools and vehicle tracking
software. Yet, fleet managers have truckloads of
roles and responsibilities to take care of. This
entire piece of article is dedicated to unsung
heroes of the logistics and transport industry.
It will be an interesting and useful read for
any seasoned or novice fleet manager.
What is a Fleet Manager? What does a Fleet
Manager do?
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A fleet manager is in charge of a fleet of
vehicles in logistics, freight forwarding or
transport sector. He is responsible for managing
and coordinating fleet operations including
vehicle management, driver management, trip
scheduling and a lot more. The bigger the fleet
of vehicles the greater the number of fleet
managers get in an organisation. It may sound
very simple but fleet operations on the floor get
messier and more complicated than what it looks
here on the screen. It involves seamless
balancing between various stakeholders involved
in the business including consignments,
drivers, vehicles, rentals and trip
managers. What are the Primary Roles and
Responsibilities of the Best Fleet
Manager? With Great power comes great
responsibility. Uncle Ben was so right! The
designation and the position of a fleet manager
is not a small one, to be clear. It does come
with a lot of responsibilities towards the
fleet, towards the organisation, towards drivers
and the rest of the staff. Lets touch upon them
one by one!
Fleet Maintenance Managing the entire fleet is
one thing and maintaining each and every vehicle
to ensure 100 uptime is another. They are
responsible for ensuring timely vehicle
servicing, maintaining overall fleet health, and
renewing permits/licenses before expiration.
Driver Management
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Managing drivers involves much more than
preparing driver schedules and tallying their
leaves. Fleet managers must keenly do the KYC of
each driver enrolled on the team. This includes
verifying all the necessary licenses they must
own in order to work as drivers. Keep tabs on
their performances and delegate work according to
their abilities.
Drawing Fleet Efficiency Ensuring that the fleet
is operating optimally, without having to pay
unnecessary overheads is also a fleet managers
job. How does this happen? Keeping a close eye on
various aspects such as fuel efficiency, driving
behaviour monitoring and vehicle uptime allows
for cutting inefficiencies. Hence, saves extra
costs.
Vehicle Acquisition Vehicles are the centrepiece
of a fleet managers work. Vehicle acquisition,
disposal and rental operations are some of the
primary tasks when you are in charge of a fleet.
Some crucial decisions pertaining to vehicle
acquisition include when to dispose of or buy a
vehicle, which one to keep and which one to sell.
Safety and Compliance In your endeavours to
become the best fleet manager, you must abide by
safety and other necessary compliances. Making
sure that all the vehicles in the fleet are
following safety regulations and complying with
industry standards.
Budgeting and Expense Management Everything comes
down to budget, profits, and money in the end,
right? Preparing estimates and managing budgets
is one of the major responsibilities of a fleet
manager. Other financial chores include
predicting costs, monitoring expenses and making
ad-hoc tweaks in the allocations and generating
financial reports. What are the Qualities of a
Successful Fleet Manager? When a professional
starts climbing the career ladder, some manage to
climb it a little faster than others. The ladder
is somewhat the same, each rung comes with a
different challenge for everyone. So what makes a
good fleet manager more successful than an
average one? Following are some skills and
qualities that a professional must possess or
hone over the period to become the best fleet
manager. Time Management Skills Excellent time
management skills do make a difference in every
professionals life. However, in a fleet
managers career, it plays a little more
important role. Trip execution, delivery
management, in fact, logistics as a whole is a
time-sensitive business, because if one step gets
delayed itll have a domino effect on the entire
supply chain.
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• Strong Organisational Skills
• Managing multiple aspects of a round-the-clock
  operating business takes some hell of
  organisational skills to keep running. And the
  bigger the fleet gets, the stronger your skills
  need to be.
• Technically and Analytically Sound
• Managerial skills are just not enough to get into
  the shoes of a fleet manager. You have to be
  technically sound to understand and monitor
  various levels of fleet operations. Solid
  analytical skills along with technical abilities
  make a one-bomb combination. Hence, help in
  decoding fleet metrics and their hidden meaning.
• A Multi-tasker
• As mentioned earlier, juggling between a hundred
  tasks is what fleet management is all about. Only
  a good multi- tasker can make his/her way
  through tedious fleet chores without going crazy.
• Sound Decision Maker
• Instant decision-making ability is something that
  an average human being lacks. Its a skill that
  needs to be adopted and honed with time. In this
  job role, confident and quick decisions are
  required quite frequently. However, this skill is
  built on years of experience and knowledge.
• Problem-solving Skills
• When you sit on a managers chair, you ought to
  be a problem solver because this throne demands
  that. You never know when and how an issue flies
  in the operations and from where. Therefore, you
  have to be prepared at all times.
• Adaptive to Change
• A business cant thrive if the core team and the
  people in charge are not ready to grow, learn,
  and unlearn. Be it in terms of new geographies
  and markets, the introduction of new technology
  such as Telematics software or adopting a new
  approach change is a must for scalability.
• How to Become a Successful Fleet Manager?

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What Challenges Do Fleet Managers Face
Today? Every industry and every job comes with
its share of challenges. So does fleet
management. Without beating around the bush
lets come straight to the point, following are
the frictions or problems that fleet managers
face on a regular basis. Rising Fuel
Costs Forget about a fleet manager, rising fuel
costs are a universal concern across domains.
Anyway, fleet managers have to fight a little
harder to keep themselves afloat.
Read More 5 Ways to Manage Fuel Consumption for
Fleet Businesses Compliance with
Regulations Compliance with industry regulations
and guidelines can be taxing and time-consuming.
Staying current with new additions and frequent
changes/upgrades ensures that fleet operations
are in compliance. Vehicle Health and
Maintenance When vehicles are running on the road
for hours and days continuously, one trip after
another, the probability of wear and tear rises
manifolds. With bigger fleets, this becomes all
the more challenging.
Explore Wondering how to simplify maintenance
hassles and increase vehicle life?
Driver and Vehicle Shortage The industry has a
dearth of good drivers, but a shortage of
vehicles during peak seasons is another boulder
that fleet managers have to face along the way.
Coordinating with vehicle suppliers and managing
rented vehicles is an added responsibility. Fast
Growing Technologies In this time and age, no
industrial sector is untouched by technology and
automation. Keeping up with the fast-paced
technological advancements is another challenge,
especially for those who are not technologically
sound. Data Management The increasing amount of
data collected on fleet operations can be
overwhelming. Maintaining reports and records on
each vehicle, driver, and asset for the future is
another battle. Environmental Concerns
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No doubt, the transport and fleet sector is a
significant contributor to pollution globally.
The stress on managers to optimise fleet
operations and reduce carbon footprints is only
increasing with time.
The Conclusion
In a nutshell, a fleet managers role is complex
and multifaceted which involves coordination with
multiple stakeholders. Other than adopting a few
added skills, a good fleet manager must keep up
with the industry and technological trends.
Considering the wide use of telematics and fleet
management software in the logistics and
transportation sector, familiarity with fleet
monitoring platforms is a must. Read More How
is AI-driven Fleet Monitoring Software
Revolutionizing Global Logistics? While AI and
automation tools have simplified fleet operations
management, they have also set the course for
data- driven fleet management. Therefore,
possessing analytical skills is a must for any
fleet manager. By taking a proactive and
strategic approach to fleet management you can
drive your organisation towards growth and
scalability.
Diksha Bhandari Currently creating SaaSy content
strategies for TrackoBit and TrackoField, this
content professional has dedicated a decade of
her life to enriching her portfolio and continues
to do so. In addition to playing with words and
spilling SaaS, she has a passion for traveling
to the mountains and sipping on adrak wali chai.
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