What is fleet management?
Fleet management refers to all the solutions implemented to manage, optimize, and monitor the use of a company's fleet of vehicles.
It encompasses operational and administrative management (registration, insurance, fuel), technical monitoring (maintenance, repairs), financial management (costs, taxation, lease or purchase contracts), as well as the strategic dimension (fleet renewal, energy choices, mobility policies).
Managing a fleet is more than just tracking vehicles. It involves coordinating multiple and often complex issues, combining regulatory constraints, budgetary imperatives, driver safety, and environmental objectives. The diversity of tasks, cost pressures, and evolving mobility patterns demand a comprehensive vision and rigorous organization. Implementing a true fleet management strategy allows you to transform this complexity into a performance driver, reconciling financial control, operational efficiency, and sustainable responsibility. An external fleet manager can then support you in this process.
What are the advantages of fleet management?
Hiring a fleet manager offers several advantages to the company:
- A time saving , freeing up teams for higher value-added tasks
- A tangible return on investment with a reduction in TCO thanks to the optimization of acquisition processes and maintenance costs
- Access to specialized expertise covering technological and regulatory developments and industry best practices, which is difficult to build internally.
This approach allows companies to transform their mobility constraints, while responding to the growing challenges of economic and environmental performance.
Also read our article “Why choose outsourced fleet management?”
What are the responsibilities of a fleet manager?
Ensure operational and administrative management
One of the main advantages, as mentioned earlier, is that fleet management provides the company with significant time savings, allowing it to focus on its core business. Your fleet manager can then handle all the administrative tasks to maintain an operational and fully compliant fleet of vehicles.
Your fleet manager can therefore take care of:
- Vehicle orders : analysis of each request, compliance with the car policy, verification of rental company invoices.
- Managing long-term leasing contracts : careful monitoring of clauses, anticipation of deadlines and optimization of durations to avoid hidden costs.
- Renewal management : rigorous planning to ensure continuity of mobility and negotiation of the best conditions.
- Driver relations : a single point of contact to simplify vehicle tracking and communication with drivers.
- Monitoring and analyzing the performance of your fleet : setting up key indicators and steering committees to transform data into levers for optimizing your fleet.
It can also meet other specific administrative needs, such as managing energy cards, vehicle registration documents, Crit'Air stickers, fines or TICPE declarations.
Optimize the technical management of the vehicle fleet
Technical management can be one of the key responsibilities of a fleet manager. The fleet manager then coordinates vehicle maintenance to ensure the reliability of the fleet, while optimizing costs through rigorous monitoring and the implementation of preventative measures.
| Perimeter | Missions |
| Driver assistance | – Handling calls – Organizing breakdown assistance and towing – Assisting drivers in case of breakdowns (replacement vehicle, repatriation, etc.) |
| Technical maintenance monitoring | – Monitoring of interventions (technical inspections, servicing, repairs, breakdowns) – Monitoring of compliance with contractual commitments with partner garages |
| Managing relationships with suppliers (breakdown services, garages, rental agencies, etc.) | – Issuing authorizations to garages to carry out repairs – Verifying the conformity and legitimacy of invoices – Alerting in case of discrepancies or anomalies (e.g., replacing the same part too soon) |
Thanks to his technical expertise, the fleet manager ensures the optimization of the vehicle fleet to meet regulatory requirements.
And all this is possible by meticulously centralizing the monitoring of each vehicle, each intervention and by relying on digital tools such as fleet management software, allowing for enhanced traceability and optimization of the TCO (total cost of ownership).
Providing strategic advice to optimize the fleet
Thanks to the constant analysis of fleet data, the fleet manager is your preferred contact to advise you and offer solutions to reduce the TCO of your vehicle fleet.
His knowledge of the automotive sector allows him to maintain continuous monitoring in order to anticipate technological and regulatory developments.
It can therefore alert you and guide you towards best practices , in order to control the TCO (total cost of ownership) of your fleet .
Your fleet is then optimized, both from a regulatory, financial and tax perspective .
Examples: preparation of reports, adjustment of long-term lease contracts, monitoring of fuel consumption, optimization of maintenance costs, choice of engines for renewals.
Anticipating regulations (LOM Law, taxation)
The obligations stemming from the Mobility Orientation Law (LOM) and the Climate and Resilience Law, the quotas for low-emission vehicles, and the intensification of tax penalties require rigorous planning. These developments represent risks when they are imposed upon them, but become genuine opportunities when they are anticipated.
- In a reactive approach, the company exposes itself to a continuous increase in its costs, tax penalties and a loss of competitiveness.
- In a proactive approach, it is possible to transform regulatory constraints into opportunities, by ensuring compliance and controlling TCO.
That is precisely the role of your fleet management provider: to support you in anticipating and managing these constraints.
At FATEC, we support companies to ensure their compliance, optimize their costs and transform regulatory constraints into a competitive and sustainable advantage.
Discover also how FATEC supports you in greening your fleet.
Rethinking employee mobility
The role of the fleet manager is no longer limited to optimizing a vehicle fleet. They must now broaden their approach and integrate employee mobility management . This evolution addresses several challenges: reducing the carbon footprint of commuting, improving employer attractiveness, and meeting regulatory requirements.
In France, the trend is already strong. Nearly 70% of French companies already offer at least one mobility solution to their employees, according to the barometer . These solutions are often integrated into an Employer Mobility Plan (PDME) , which the fleet manager helps to structure and monitor.
The fleet manager can assist you in implementing solutions that promote:
- public transport
- soft mobility
- carpooling
- car sharing
- individual electric mobility
The role of the fleet manager is thus undergoing a major transformation to become that of a mobility manager, capable of managing employee mobility to meet both operational needs, financial objectives and CSR ambitions of companies.
What digital tools can be used to optimize fleet management?
As seen previously, the job of fleet manager is becoming increasingly complex and requires both new skills and the use of digital tools to exploit data.
Data is now one of the key levers to activate for optimizing fleet performance. A fleet generates a vast amount of diverse data from multiple sources (leasing companies, garages, service providers, energy suppliers, etc.). This fragmentation makes data collection, consolidation, and analysis more difficult. Without a fleet management tool, leveraging this data becomes extremely complex. Relying solely on Excel or manual processes is no longer sufficient. Without a dedicated software solution, gaining a clear and actionable overview is challenging.
That is why fleet managers need to equip themselves with fleet management software.
The advantages of a fleet management tool
- Centralization and automation of administrative processes, reducing the risk of errors and processing times.
- Automatic alerts to anticipate important deadlines (technical inspections, end of contracts, maintenance), avoiding penalties and non-conformities.
- Automated reports that facilitate reporting and decision-making.
At FATEC, for example, we offer our customers the Mobipilot solution.
Mobipilot is a reporting and management tool designed to centralize all the technical data of your fleet.
It allows you to view all fleet indicators, in order to offer you a clear, up-to-date and actionable visibility across your entire fleet.
How to choose your fleet management provider
Every company has different challenges and needs. Therefore, your choice of service provider should be based on your company's specific needs (fleet size, vehicle types, etc.).
Choosing a fleet management provider is a strategic decision. It's about trusting a partner who can provide personalized, long-term support to your business and help you achieve a measurable ROI while maintaining an operational fleet.
The right choice will then be the one that can adapt to the particularity of your fleet, that is to say, having the capacity to manage fleets similar to yours in terms of size, for example, or spread over several sites or composed of various types of vehicles (cars, vans, trucks, machinery).
It should also allow you to generate savings. This, along with saving time, is the main reason why companies decide to outsource their fleet management. Outsourcing should allow you to reduce the TCO and have better budget control.
Therefore, when selecting your service provider, it is essential to pay particular attention to the improvement plan. Your fleet manager must be able to offer you a clear roadmap, with concrete actions, to optimize your fleet in the long term.
Finally, the service provider must be a true strategic and trusted partner. When you delegate the management of your fleet, you are essentially entrusting them with a part of managing your business. Your fleet manager must be able to advise you, anticipate regulatory changes, and help you make the right decisions.
Do you want support in optimizing your fleet?
FATEC supports you in budget control and fleet optimization.
