Every business changes over time. No business can remain unaffected by the surrounding economic environment of its competitors, its customers and changing technology.
So it’s absolutely critical that your business is prepared for change. Sadly for many businesses, change is the one thing they can’t cope with.
Change is such a challenge for modern businesses that an entire industry has been built around helping businesses deal with it. Change management consultants assist businesses to survive the growing pains of an ever-changing world.
In a recent article Ray LaHood of the DOT mentioned that the transportation sector accounts for two-thirds of U.S. oil use and contributes about one-third of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. He then made a telling statement about the transport industry’s special obligation to minimize this sizeable carbon footprint.
His comments come on the heels of a 605-page DOT report on climate change, and if you don’t feel inclined to read it (or don’t have 3 days to study it in detail!) then here’s the basic synopsis:
If your business needs to cut costs or improve its profitability it needs positive ROI. And that’s measured in dollars and cents. It’s simple – when a business spends money on something, anything, it expects that the benefit will be greater than the initial cost – whether that means increased revenue or reduced expenses, the result is the same: a business is more profitable.
But there’s another element to managing costs or improving revenue, an element that is more subtle than straight ROI. It’s known as opportunity cost and you don’t know about it because it’s not there to measure. As they say “you don’t know what you don’t know”.
Sure it’s not fair but that’s life but at least you found this article so that’s a good start. So what is this opportunity cost that fleets are missing out on?
Are fleet managers responsible for fuel card abuse?
In a UK court case, a UK man was charged with stealing fuel from his employer, using a fuel card. The man, a self-confessed drug addict, would meet with his contact at a nearby garage paying for their fuel worth around 100 pounds ($US155) each time, and this would happen twice a day. It didn’t take long for that to translate to around $GBP10,000 ($US15,500) worth of stolen fuel before he was found out. It’s unlikely the firm will ever be able to recover the loss, a sober warning to all fleet managers who don’t monitor their fuel expenses carefully.
But you don’t employ drug addicts and you trust all your drivers. So there’s nothing to worry about?
When the So Cal area got hit by some of the worst rain storms in over a decade last week, it caused mayhem on the roads. And that created major headaches for fleet operators. So how exactly would GPS tracking improve the situation?
Wild weather hits Southern California
Described as one of the most extreme storms to hit Southern California in about ten years, the severe rain that fell last week created havoc on the highways, causing more congestion than normal and about five times as many road accidents.
With the advancing growth of GPS systems and web services, such as Outage Central that provide comprehensive outage links, severe weather alerts, and outage news to emergency resource personnel, utility companies are turning to online technology to help them tackle their biggest challenge – reducing outage times.
When there’s a power outage the number one priority for a utility company is to restore power, and there are two very important reasons for this.
The world of fleet management moves fast. The demand for accurate reports on fleet performance puts pressure on fleet managers to have their finger on the pulse at all times. Do you feel like you’re in touch with all the moving parts of your fleet? Do you worry you’re not doing enough to keep upper management informed of the positive work you’re doing to improve ROI?
Studies have shown that the top concerns facing fleet managers, including operations, equipment and fleet services managers, is inadequate reporting of fleet activity. Why?
Scheduling employees is a full-time job for many businesses, organizing staff to accommodate the needs of the business and the changing circumstances of workers.
It needs to be flexible enough to allow for last-minute changes, whether it’s a staff member calling in sick or being called away on an emergency, or clients requesting a variation to their normal service, such as moving it to a different day, time or location.
Then there are the public holidays, like Thanksgiving and Labor Day, which need to be worked around and allowed for, sometimes weeks or months in advance.
Benefits of good worker scheduling
Do you worry what your drivers are doing when they’re out on the road? Do you find it hard to measure how efficient your drivers are? Are you concerned they’re breaking laws and exposing the company to fines or penalties?
Driver compliance software (DCS) can help you manage remote workers without needing to be looking over their shoulder every minute of the working day. DCS is about keeping your fleet legal, safe and profitable by providing clear guidelines to your drivers about what’s expected, both from government (DOT) regulations and company policies.
By December 2010, CSA 2010 will affect all commercial vehicle fleets in the U.S. It has been progressively rolled out throughout 2010 and is designed to target unsafe fleets, intervening where appropriate to improve safety standards.
Fleets that will be affected by CSA 2010 are those with vehicles that:
- Weigh more than 10,000lbs and travel interstate (across state borders)
- Deliver HAZMAT (hazardous materials)
CSA is an initiative by the FMCSA and introduces a new enforcement and compliance model that allows FMCSA and its State Partners to contact a larger number of carriers earlier in order to address safety problems before crashes occur.
There are three main areas that constitute CSA 2010:
