Basic fleet record keeping

It might sound funny, but there are companies which don't keep records of their fleets even though their fleet size might easily reach 10 or 20 vehicles.

What do I mean by keeping records of their fleets? For companies where fleets are not well managed, the first step is understanding what their fleet is composed of. What vehicles, models are in the fleet, whether they are owned or leased, what are the leasing conditions, who is using the vehicle and a lot of other questions should be cleared before we move any further and talk about a well managed fleet.

In order to proceed with the first steps in understanding what your fleet is composed of, try to gather as much information about the fleet as possible:

• Number plate
• Manufacturer
• Model
• VIN number
• Type / Category
• Ownership - leased/rented/owned
• Owner
• If leased/rented - contract ending period
• If leased/rented - any contractual limits, like mileage limits
• Purchase date
• Purchase value
• Who is using the vehicle
• First registration date (when the vehicle was purchased as new)
• Engine volume
• Engine power
• Gross vehicle mass
• Tare weight
• Fuel
• Emission class
• CO2 (g/km)
• Fuel consumption highway
• Fuel consumption city
• Fuel consumption combined
• Next MOT
• Insurance period
• Seats

Not all of the data points would be easy and straightforward to gather, but all of them will help us in the journey of making sure the fleet becomes well managed. I'll try to briefly cover the data points and describe why they might be important.

Data points like number plate, manufacturer, model, VIN number, type/category is a basic dataset that describes a vehicle - you can identify the vehicle by these data points.

Technical information like engine volume, engine power, gross vehicle mass, tare weight, fuel, emission class, emissions per km come in handy when you're planning your taxes, requirements for road toll payments, etc. There are a lot of countries where the tax payments are based on emission classes, emissions, vehicle engine volume and or power, while road toll payments are based on vehicle weight and emission class mostly.

When it comes to accounting and managing fuel, the manufacturer rated fuel consumption is important to understand whether the drivers using a specific vehicle are driving the vehicle according to the rated fuel consumption. In some countries there are certain tax obligations if your fuel consumption is way over the rated consumption.

Data about ownership, owner, purchase date and value is definitely important when we start to work in the area of total cost of ownership. You will need this basic data to make sure you understand the total cost of owning a specific vehicle.

Dates like insurance periods, MOT due dates are important so that you make sure you're not missing some deadlines which might lead to getting fines.

I could easily cover all of the data points, but my goal was to show that there's reasoning behind the data points I mentioned. The important job for you right now is to create an Excel sheet with at least these columns and start filling in the data. Once you're done, we can move forward. If you have trouble finding this data, try to reach authorities providing vehicle registration services. Most, if not all of the data should be in their databases.

Good luck and stay tuned!