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Fleet Risk Management (And What To Do If It All Goes Wrong)

06 February 2017

As a Fleet Manager, you have a responsibility to your employees to ensure that they’re safe and that you’re aware of any possible risks for both your employees and for the business. And it’s not just about being aware of the risks, but taking measures to reduce the chances of things going wrong.

We’ve pulled together a list of the major risks and risk management strategies you can take to fulfil your duties as an awesome Fleet Manager.

Risk 1: Your employees could be claiming personal miles as business miles.

This might not be on purpose; if employees are using their company car for personal use as well, it can be difficult to keep track of personal and business miles.

This can present a financial risk for your business and it’s your responsibility, as the Fleet Manager, to make sure the company is only paying for miles driven for business.

The Solution: Mileage Audit

Mileage Audit is a system that allows employees to quickly and easily log journeys via PC, mobile, or even voice message. They can also use their mobile’s GPS to track mileage as they go with the MileageTrack App.

The system will automatically pick up on any anomalous entries (for example, entries outside of normal working hours) to minimise the risk of personal miles accidentally being logged as business miles. It can also pick up on mismatches between odometer readings and fuel purchases.

Pretty clever, eh?

Risk 2: Your employees aren’t communicating problems with their vehicle.

This can be down to one of a few reasons. The employee could simply not be aware of any problems with their car or van which is why they’re not communicating those problems to you.

Another reason could be that the employee is concerned that, if their vehicle needs repairing, they might be without their car or van for an extended period of time. This could lead them to not reporting any issues.

Additionally, the employee might simply forget. They may be incredibly busy and something as small as clipping a bollard on their way out of a parking lot might just slip their mind.

Either way, if your employees don’t let you know that there are problems, you run the risk of irreparably damaging the vehicle.

The Solution: Telematics

Installing a telematics box in your fleet vehicles is a perfect solution to employees not communicating problems. The newest telematics technology can provide you with crucial business intelligence without relying on employees.

Telematics can highlight and manage negative driving habits to help reduce fuel consumption, carbon emissions, and wear and tear. Crash detection can raise alert of a collision to help keep your employees safe as well as not letting those ‘little bumps’ go unreported. The technology can also track vehicle location and record any incidents via dashcam.

Risk 3: Your employees might not have the best driving record.

Fleet Managers are going to spend a lot of time managing employees who are driving company cars. Most of these employees will have a full, clean driving licence, but what happens if that’s not the case? What if an employee actually lies about their driving record or even about the fact they have a licence in the first place?

Your job isn’t to try to catch people out, but it is to make sure that your employees are as safe and insured as possible. Any discrepancies between their assumed licence status and their actual licence status could mean that they are not insured and could be putting other drivers (and your fleet vehicles) at risk.

The Solution: Licence Validation

Here at Marshall Leasing, we offer a full driver license validation service (by working with the Licence Bureau). It’s an online service that lets you search any licence to ascertain the individual risks of each driver. The service also allows you to check the insurance and MOT documents for employees who drive their own vehicles for business purposes.

Risk 4: Your employee has an accident.

Accidents happen. You could have planned to minimise every possible risk and things could still go wrong. Unfortunately, that’s just the way things go, but an accident can be a Fleet Manager’s worst nightmare. Hopefully, if an employee does have an accident, there are no injuries or fatalities. But whatever does happen, you need to be prepared.

The Solution: Outsourced Accident Management

Because accidents are a Fleet Manager’s worst nightmare, outsourcing gives you the opportunity to hand over the claims process so you can concentrate on keeping your employees and vehicles safe. If the worst should happen, we can offer top-notch accident management, so you don’t have to worry.

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