| AA Vehicle Management – A Business Solution |
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David Wallace, Director of Business Services for the AA, says: “AA Vehicle Management effectively gives small businesses the kind of negotiating power that up to now has only been available to the biggest fleets. “If a business needs four vehicles, for example, then that does not give them a great deal of muscle when negotiating a price. Certainly not when compared to the combined strength of the AA and HBoS, who deal with upwards of 30,000 vehicles every year. We can now pass on those cost benefits to smaller companies and back it up with our comprehensive fleet management capacity.” In effect AA Vehicle Management stands for the outsourcing of the work involved in obtaining and maintaining the company’s vehicles day-to-day. Initially fiscal planning by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu will assist in bringing together the right package for the business and then the AA will take over to manage the whole life of every vehicle in the company fleet. The most competitive rates for the company’s individual requirements can be found from among the AA’s panel of insurers; the servicing, maintenance and repair requirements of the fleet can be scheduled and carried out through the AA’s national network of Service Centres; the AA’s Accident Management expertise can be employed in the event of misfortune, and tyre replacement can be carried out on site by the mobile AA Tyre Fit service. Removing the day-to-day processes out of the way by effective outsourcing in this way can then allow the fleet manager to provide the company and its drivers with a comprehensive operations and safety policy. The government is currently in the process of increasing the prominence of these responsibilities within fleet management. Currently up to a third of road traffic accidents occur during work-related journeys, equating to 270 people killed or seriously injured on British roads every week. This is likely to result in a considerable shake-up of practices. The likely simplification of existing ‘corporate killing law’ in recent government proposals mean that the fleet manager must prepare for far greater accountability of companies towards all parties injured or killed. Ensuring that the hand-held mobile phone ban is being adhered to, that driver fatigue is not an issue, taking care of driver training and monitoring – these are the issues that will take up increasing amounts of the fleet manager’s time and focus. It is clear that there are many areas for companies to explore in getting a firm grasp of their motoring practices. A recent survey of fleet managers conducted by AA Business Services revealed that although 91 per cent monitor the roadworthiness of their vehicles, less than half kept a record of their company drivers. A quarter of those managers polled had never even checked the licences of their drivers, even though there are estimated to be 750,000 unlicenced drivers in Britain.
In order to cover the myriad responsibilities that can and undoubtedly will multiply in these areas of fleet management, outsourcing the supply and maintenance of the vehicles themselves to a company like AA Vehicle Management can ease the fleet manager’s role. With tens of thousands of corporate customers, of which the overwhelming majority are small to medium sized businesses, AA Business Services has a considerable market for its leasing product. By talking to its existing customers the AA also avoids direct competition with the established names in the leasing business. “AA Vehicle Management is not an aggressive new product in the market,” asserts Wallace. “Roadside assistance remains our core business, and we at Business Services have many valued relationships with the vehicle leasing industry such as Arval PHH and ALD, with whom we were in consultation throughout the planning that has gone into our leasing product.” “What we offer is a consultative approach to ensuring that businesses can get the best value from our whole range of services,” says David Wallace. |
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