5 considerations for fleet managers in 2022 | Intack Self Drive

The new year is well and truly underway and with it comes the opportunity for you to boost and improve your business’ fleet of vehicles. Here, we’ve taken a look at five such things you need to watch out for and how you can potentially utilise them to your company’s advantage. These range from sustainability considerations, to looking into alternative forms of fleet management through things like daily van hire. Here are our top suggestions!

Global warming is a pretty hot topic these days, if you’ll pardon the pun, and the shift towards a greener future is being prioritised across a huge range of industries – not least the transport sector. The low-carbon drive has been made even more urgent by the ongoing energy crisis, with the UK joining the many governments around the world which are implementing ever-stricter policies to cut air pollution and climate change. 

Clean Air Zones constitute one prominent example of these sorts of policies. They’ve been on the national agenda for quite a few years now, but they’re now being implemented in increasing numbers of cities across the UK. If your fleet still mostly comprises vehicles that fall beneath the CAZ standards, there’s a good chance you could see an exponential rise in the cost of doing business over the next few years. So, if you have older vehicles you may wish to consider investing in modern models that produce fewer emissions – it’s easier on the planet, and easier on your wallet too. 

Making a concerted effort to be greener can also help boost your business’ profile to new and existing clients, helping to boost your Corporate Social Responsibility, as well as your ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance). 

This year can be your chance to embrace the digital world, more specifically with telematics. This tech can produce more data about how your fleet is running and can then highlight issues with certain vehicles and give insights into how to improve their efficiency – and not just in terms of emissions. 

More information about vehicle usage can allow you to look at how and where they’re being driven, which can be useful for bringing down insurance costs and simply making sure they’re being properly run and managed by your drivers. As a bonus, it can also be handy for spotting any unauthorised detours your drivers might end up making – but hopefully that’s not something you’ll have to deal with too often! 

If you’ve ever suffered from vehicle breakdowns or problems, it can be both costly and damaging to your firm’s reputation – particularly if you work in logistics and deliveries. To help avoid this you might want to consider a more flexible management approach this year. If you’ve got the capital available, it can always be helpful to have a few extra vehicles on standby, just to minimise the impact that any unexpected downtime (such as vehicle breakdowns) can have on your business.

You don’t necessarily have to outright buy these vehicles, especially if you’re not convinced you’ll make full use of them throughout the year. Instead, you can consider hiring cars, vans or buses for peak times or busy periods, so they can fill in for any vehicles that are out of action. If you’ve got the capital, you might even want to consider something like Flexi Hire to provide a cost-effective, long-term boost to your fleet, rather than buying a new vehicle outright. 

One of the hot topics in transport and logistics last year was supply chain issues – and with continuing border problems from Brexit and the pandemic, this looks set to continue in 2022. As such, it gives fleet managers the chance to diversify and employ their vehicles to help support and find work in this troubled sector. 

Sales of electric vehicles (EV) has continued in an upward trend and with the impending ban on the sale of new diesel and petrol vehicles not too far away, 2022 could be your chance to get ahead of the curve and revolutionise your fleet. Again, this will also reflect well on your brand image and will bring you additional green benefits. 

Rolling out all, or a combination of the above, should then help provide a competitive advantage to your business’ fleet of vehicles across the year. However, if you’ve yet to look into renting a vehicle on a daily, weekly or flexible basis and are strongly considering using point number three, then be sure to check out the selection of rental cars, vans and minibuses we have here at Intack Self Drive. 

We will also be happy to advise on which vehicles and leasing options would best suit your company, all with the expertise and quality customer service that comes off the back of our 50 years of experience. Get in touch by calling 01254 57811 to find out more.