Why bankers should think like fleet managers

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In the dynamic world of fleet management there is only one way for service providers to stay ahead of rapidly changing industry needs, and that is to think like fleet managers, says Molapo. Molapo and his team of fleet management experts employ several methods to stand in the shoes of fleet managers and to remain at the forefront of the industry.

Remaining at the forefront of the industry

Firstly, the Standard Bank Fleet Management team can essentially be described as a fleet manager. Standard Bank's own corporate fleet of vehicles is probably one of South Africa's most experimental fleets. Nearly every fleet management service that Standard Bank offers, from its ECO2 Fleet carbon footprint measurement tool, to its transaction authorisation system that curbs fuel card misuse, has been thoroughly tried and tested on the bank's own fleet.

Secondly, Standard Bank Fleet Management is led by the needs of its fleet management clients. "We would pick up from a fleet client that some aspect of a reporting system is not really working for them, for example," says Molapo. "We then tailor a solution for the fleet and if it works, the innovation would often become a standard feature of our fleet management services."

Innovations in fleet management

As little as a few years ago, fleet managers worked relatively blindly, without much information about what their drivers and vehicles were up to. Innovations had centred on generating the information that fleet managers need. Since then, tracking, telematics and the IT revolution in banking have unleashed a tsunami of information that threatens to overwhelm fleet managers.

Lately, therefore, innovations in fleet management services tend to focus on finding better ways in which to package information - how to extract the most important facts automatically and flag these to fleet managers through the most user-friendly reporting systems. "Being a leader in this field means listening carefully to the needs of the client and being willing to innovate constantly," says Molapo.

Curbing fuel-card fraud

A good example is Standard Bank Fleet Management's leadership in developing transaction authorisation. Transaction authorisation was introduced to South African banking to curb fuel-card fraud by automatically declining transactions made with a card reported as stolen.

Standard Bank developed the technology further by setting up more than 30 different parameters to validate each fleet card transaction. If a driver tried to buy more fuel than the tank capacity of the vehicle linked to the card, for example, the transaction would be declined automatically. Today, Standard Bank's fleet cards are subject to the least amount of transaction fraud amongst fleet card issuing banks.

At the same time, Standard Bank is constantly developing the reporting tools linked to transaction authorisation. Already, fleet managers can view, via a website, transactions made by their drivers as they happen, and problematic transactions are flagged so that the fleet manager does not have to pore over reams of transactions to discover anomalies.

Providing a holistic service

Another aspect of Standard Bank Fleet Management's leadership is its willingness to partner with other service providers to provide the most holistic service possible. The answer, says Molapo, is to form strategic partnerships with the best of each speciality service provider. In this way, Standard Bank Fleet Management has partnered with top roadside assistance services, driver-training services and telematics providers, among many others.

As much as Standard Bank stays in tune with the needs of fleet managers, it also keeps a close eye on developments in the transport industry through a full-time industry specialist.