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Fleetcheck warns of potential for poor fleet decisions over electrification

Date: 07 January 2021   |   Author: Sean Keywood

Shortages in both new vehicle supply and fleet management skills could lead to poor decisions being made as businesses move towards electrification, according to fleet software company Fleetcheck.

It says very long lead times for EVs, caused by factors including Brexit, the Covid-19 pandemic, and a slow ramping-up of EV production, are being exacerbated as a problem thanks to a drop in available expertise.

Fleetcheck managing director Peter Golding said that shortages of vehicles were being widely reported, and that for some models manufacturers were unable to quote any delivery time at all.

He said: "What this does is create tough choices for fleets, especially those that are pushing hard for electrification. Do they hang on and wait? Do they opt instead for petrol or diesel models that are in better supply? Do they use interim measures such as medium-term rental?

"Each of these solutions has pros and cons that will be suitable for different fleets and even for different drivers, but deciding which is suitable requires in-depth research and a level of expertise that many businesses simply can't access.

"Especially, something that we are now starting to see are shortages of fleet skills in some organisations because of redundancies or furloughing among experienced staff because of the pandemic. The overall combination will undoubtedly lead to poor decisions being made."

Golding said fleets that decided to wait until the EVs they wanted were available could face particular problems, with managers unaware of the costs and safety risks attached to keeping existing vehicles for longer.

He said: "If you decide to hang onto cars and vans for what might turn out to be an extra year or more, then you could be incurring a large amount of additional cost, depending on each individual instance, whether that means replacing all four tyres or a cambelt change. It could be much cheaper to opt for medium-term rental, for instance.

"However, this kind of decision making requires in-depth knowledge of maintenance profiles on quite a granular level. Our fear is that this expertise is becoming increasingly difficult for businesses to access as the pandemic drags on.

"All of this is true in some larger organisations but especially so in SMEs, where quite often the fleet responsibility is part of a shared role and there tends to be less of a strategic approach to vehicle acquisition."

Golding added that Fleetcheck was considering possible solutions to the skills shortage problem, and would be bringing a new product to market in the first quarter of 2021.

"We want to identify new ways of providing help to fleets over key decisions, such as making the best choices when it comes to new vehicles. Our view is that there is likely to be deskilling in many organisations and we are looking at several options that will fill that gap."



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