Published in Fleet World, April 2011
We operate as consultants and inflation has not directly impacted our organisation at all. We tend to get paid according to the value we deliver for our clients rather than on a ‘day rate’, and this tends to take the pressure off our own pricing.
We have two groups of clients; leasing companies and fleet managers.
Colin Tourick gave a presentation at the Fleet World webinar on 16 February 2011. The webinar looked at some of the key issues surrounding Fleet Finance and Fleet Policy Review.
Free to view for anyone within the fleet industry, for more details and to register visit: http://www.fleetworld.net/news/2011/Feb/New-Fleet-World-webinar-to-look-at-Fleet-Finance-and-Review-of-Fleet-Policy/0434001964/
Published in Fleet News October 2010
This remains a hotly-debated topic amongst fleet managers. Leasing companies report that in mid 2008 around 18% of car leases went into extension. This increased to 27% in late 2009 and has since fallen to 21%.
The average lease extension period increased from 6.6 months in mid 2008 to a peak of 8.9 months and has now fallen back to 7.5 months.
Clearly, the peak is now over but many companies are still extending their leases. So, should you be joining them? That depends.
Published in Fleet World October 2010
Last month one of the large leasing companies held an event for their major clients and they were kind enough to invite me to deliver a keynote speech.
We agreed that my speech would be entitled “Fleet Excellence: Is it achievable?” which I thought would give me broad scope to talk about the whole gamut of issues surrounding fleet management. To start with, what exactly is “fleet excellence”? Does it exist? Is there any organisation that has organised the management of its fleet in such a way that it can be called a perfect model of excellence, something truly state-of-the-art that cannot be improved any further? Frankly, if such a fleet exists, I have yet to come across it: though I am not setting out here to decry the excellent work done by fleet managers, simply to say that fleet management is such a wide topic, covering so many areas and disciplines, that it would truly be something quite amazing if there was one fleet where every aspect was truly perfect.
In preparing for the speech I produced a list of all of the issues a fleet manager needs to understand and examine. There were 252 items on the list. Here is a brief summary, and I offer it a checklist for any fleet manager wishing to verify that they have considered all aspects of the management of their fleet.
Auctions are a real fleet success story, having revolutionised the way fleet vehicles are sold. They are efficient and generally achieve the fastest sale at the lowest risk. However – and here I am inviting irate auction-house managers to protest – most of the people who attend are motor traders who are buying stock for resale, so you will generally only achieve ‘trade’ prices when you sell at auction. These of course have to be lower than retail because the traders have to leave enough scope to achieve their margin on resale. Nonetheless, the speed and efficiency with which cars are sold at auction is impressive, and this can save you a lot of management time as well as money (including interest, depreciation, vehicle holding costs and marketing costs).
Published in Fleet World, July 2010
Broken windscreens are an annoying fact of a fleet manager’s life but they have to be handled professionally and cost-effectively just like every other aspect of fleet management. Which raises the question – what is best practice in this area?
A large number of companies specialise in repairing and replacing car windscreens, though three companies make up about 75% of the market, so if you have a broken windscreen there’s a good chance you will end up dealing with one of these.
If you lease your cars you will find that your leasing company has a preferred glass supplier. When your cars are delivered the leasing company will usually provide this information to your drivers, either in a driver handbook or via a sticker inside the car.
Published in Fleet World, June 2010
They’re black, come in a range of prices, the legal tread depth is 1.6mm and you mustn’t mix radials and cross-plys on the same axle: surely that’s all a fleet manager needs to know about tyres?
Well, actually, no. There’s quite a lot more that they should know. (But you expected me to say that).
Published in Fleet World, April 2010
It is remarkably easy to buy fleet finance. You call one of the many suppliers of fleet finance – banks, finance and leasing companies or contract hire companies – tell them what you want, compare their prices and services and choose the one that seems offers what you want and the best combination of price and quality.
The hard bit, in fact, is to work out what you want. There are many different ways to finance your company cars, including outright purchase, contract hire, operating lease, contract purchase, finance lease, hire purchase, conditional sale, credit sale (as part of an employee car ownership scheme), salary sacrifice, loans, bank overdrafts and cash, and if you want to release cash from your fleet you could consider a sale and lease back too.
Broadly, these products fall into two camps: those that help you buy a vehicle and those where you pay for its use then hand it back. Continue reading
Published in Asset Finance Europe, November 2009
For decades, the accounting rules (SSAP21, then IAS17) have classified lease as either finance leases or operating leases (contract hire). Finance leases were like loans; the hirer was committed to pay back the lessor’s total investment. Operating leases were like long term rentals; the lessor kept the residual value risk and needed to sell the asset to recover its investment in full. So finance leases were shown as liabilities on lessees’ balance sheet whereas operating leases were accounted for ‘off balance sheet’; the lease payments being expensed in the profit and loss account and the future rental liability shown as a note to the accounts.
Investment analysts have never much liked these classifications. Continue reading
Published in Fleet News, July 2009