Fleet outsourcing; solution to business focus, cost saving

Maintenance of vehicles and management of drivers by corporate organizations has been a source of concern to many organizations’ in Nigeria. Avis Nigeria with a core competency in Fleet management services is providing solutions to both its national and international clients with essential daily requirement of land transportation for their business operations.
The provision of feet management services cover mainly provision of vehicles to the different categories of employees, pool vehicles, field /marketing cars, staff buses etc, vehicles for an agreed contractual fixed monthly rental payments over a period of 36 to 48 months depending on the contract agreed by both parties .
Avis proposition mainly centres on who we are and what we do, because at Avis “We try harder” to make everything about Fleet management services simple and transparent; while providing excellent service and great value for money, the company equally provides timely response to customer queries.
Kunle Oguntayo, Chief Operating Officer of Avis Nigeria says, the risk of ownership, such as providing huge capital outlay in purchasing vehicles is borne by AVIS rather than the company (The company can invest such funds in its core business).
The COO, with over eighteen years of experience in the transport industry and global certifications in same field, assessed the industry as an ever-growing advantage with core focus on the customer’s value added services. He says further that, full maintenance leasing can be an ‘’off-balance sheet financing to the client, the monthly lease charges can be considered as an operating expenses. Why does a company have to engage in non- core areas that distract focus and cost ineffectiveness by managing vehicle and drivers internally?
Outsourcing option will allow the company to focus on its core function, allowing it to grow its business, while efficiency will be driven by the outsourcing company from scale advantages are some of the benefits of Avis fleet management solution according to the COO.
Avis has proven to make tremendous development and ease budgeting for land transportation cost by its enormous clientele as the leasing allows a fixed cost for duration of the lease; this will directly have a positive effect on cash flow of the client.
While company vehicles are down due to either minor or major repairs, Avis fleet management solution provides stop-gap or replacement of such equivalent vehicles, whenever any leased vehicle is down due to any kind of repairs at no extra cost to the client which ensure client business or operation is not disrupted during the lease period.
Avis Nigeria provides two types fleet management services: full operating lease and maintenance leasing. The full operating lease involves Avis deploying brand new fleet on request from clients, chauffeurs, responsible for repairs & maintenance, licensing and renewal, tracking and Insurance with option of fuelling, while maintenance leasing means the client owns the fleet of vehicles but contracts maintenance of the vehicles, employment and management of chauffeurs, tracking and licensing of the vehicles to Avis at an agreed monthly rate for a specified period of time.

A monthly fleet management reports from Avis fleet services provides accurate fleet efficiency information. Aside the stringent chauffeurs’ employment policy adopted that assures safety, security to our client and the asset, Avis has maintained a small but focused technology savvy management team comprising of multi-skilled professionals with diverse experience and knowledge to drive and manage the affairs of the business.
We are committed to high level of fleet maintenance. Avis has in-house workshop at its head office that handles maintenance, which strategically aimed not only for cost effectiveness but also to enhance service delivery and prevent down time.
The scope of maintenance with trained Technicians, which basically covers: routing servicing, corrective maintenance, panel beating, auto electrical and tyre service department. The company equally has Service level Agreements with accredited automobile garages at various locations outside Lagos. This allows the company to have access to prompt maintenance of the fleet and leverage on warranty on certain repairs.
The key focus on customer value added services cannot be over emphasized. Kunle Oguntayo expanciated on the effective rewards system and human capital development measures on training of staff and expertise within Nigeria.
With staff strength over 800, and 85% as chauffeurs, He added that employee rewards system towards manpower capacity has improved service delivery to clients and strengthened operations. The global positioning system has long been imbibed in our operational dynamics and effective maintenance of vehicles.
The effective feedback mechanism in place has not only ensure focus on innovation, break surrounding barriers affecting clients but has also has created customer satisfaction and retention.
Government agencies and its relevant departments that are established for creating identified values to the economy should consider fleet outsourcing as part the strategies for effective cost of governance.
The federal, state and local governments expends huge amount of funds acquiring fleets on a yearly basis and vote huge sums of money for repairs and maintenance with no proper record keeping of such expenditure and to a large extent most of the expenses are over invoiced.
Whereas such funds can be channelled to providing other basic needs to the populace in the states. In some developing economies like South Africa, government and their agencies do not buy vehicles for its activities. Rather they lease from the fleet management operators. Fixed monthly lease rentals charges cover maintenance, Insurance, licensing & renewals with option of mode of driving.
He advocated that it is high time government embraces this scheme, which will ultimately save cost (both in the short and long run) and provide the much-needed employment, which is the engine room for growing the private sector and reducing unemployment in the country.

LMF set to maximize opportunities in local auto sector
The forthcoming Lagos Motor Fair will be packaged to ensure that participants and visitors maximize fully the benefits and potentials in the Nigerian automotive and road transport sectors.
This objective is aimed at fast tracking the development of the sectors and ensuring that the attendant benefits of such rapid developments are fully tapped and unleashed into the economy.

Ifeanyi Agwu, chairman of the organizing committee for the event  said that all strategies have been deployed to ensure that the fair  more than ever before receives the needed attention from participants, institutional, trade, professional and individual buyers as well as visitors.