So far in 2014, I have heard a few resounding themes: driver safety and the reduction of distracted driving behaviors, continued digging into the viability of alternative-fuel vehicles, and, not surprisingly, fleet rightsizing for a variety of reasons.
One of the strongest messages this year on the truck side of fleet this year, however, related to fleet rightsizing. Looking through past articles and quotes from 2014, I typically see rightsizing used almost synonymously with downsizing; however, just look at the two words and you can immediately see that they are not the same.
Rightsizing means finding the correct balance of fleet vehicles required to support an organization, which may not automatically equal a reduced fleet size; while downsizing is the act of reducing the size of your vehicle fleet to improve usage.
When rightsizing a fleet, it’s true that many fleets will find the need to downsize their vehicle operations to ensure optimum performance and limited vehicle downtime; however, I located stories where a few fleet managers mentioned the need to actually increase the number of fleet vehicles and drivers in their rightsizing effort, which resulted in the downsizing of territories instead. In these cases, drivers were able to accomplish more calls, with less downtime on the road between clients, and less wear-and-tear on the vehicles, which ended up saving money.
What rightsizing efforts have you made within your fleet? Have you found that rightsizing meant an increase in your fleet size, or has it always equaled downsizing?
Let me know what you have experienced!
Lauren Fletcher
Lauren.Fletcher@bobit.com
