Frequently Asked Questions

Approximately 80% of light fleet vehicle costs are fixed.  Fixed costs are incurred whether the vehicle moves or not. Large fixed cost contributors include: [Varies slightly by country]

• Depreciation [50%]

• Finance charges/Interest [19%]

• Insurance [6%]

• Maintenance [6%]

Remove a surplus vehicle and it eliminates its fixed cost component from your budget. BFO studies typically find between 14%-37% surpluses so the positive impact on your budget can be sizeable.

Do you know how many fleet vehicles you really need?

Monthly mileage thresholds, historic benchmark ratios of staff-to-vehicles and trips per day simply do not work. These measures ignore critical decision factors such as:

• Concurrent vehicle use at each site – how many vehicles were absent from base at the same time?

• Vehicle destination – where did the vehicle go?

• Trip planning efficiency – did a vehicle criss-cross back and forward when one planned trip could have halved the mileage?

• Offsite parking duration at sites – did the vehicle park all day at the airport, a training session or a conference not far from home base?

• Time of day/week usage – are vehicles mainly used in the mornings hours or do some day have much lower use?

That’s why it is important to collect actual utilization data to make the right decisions and optimize vehicle fleet numbers.

• Use BFO GPS data loggers for 5-weeks to perform a vehicle utilization audit.  The self-install devices are supplied at no charge.

• Logbook audits regularly provide results that meet resistance. Our research shows that logbook audits show data inaccuracy levels that can exceed 40% at times either due to trip omissions, illegible writing and unreliable data recording. It occurs even with the best Quality Assurance measures put in place.

• Booking systems regularly hold 20%-30% vehicle surpluses.  Staff do not cancel bookings or overbook time.

• GPS is the one data source that staff trust.  Use GPS to for audits and remove the conflict that mileage, logbooks, booking systems, and other methods generate at findings implementation time.

BFO utilization audits are ideal for trucks, vans and car fleets.  Data can be gathered so long as the vehicle has a 12/24/42V power socket inside the vehicle.