For years, fleet was treated as a cost to keep down. That’s changing. Leading organizations now see fleet as something that drives business performance. When a vehicle is down, the cost goes well beyond the repair bill. It shows up as delayed jobs, lost productivity, and missed customer commitments.
This shift was the starting point for a recent Automotive Fleet webinar presented by Merchants Fleet. One theme came up throughout the conversation: the fleets that perform best aren’t defined by the vehicles they run. They’re defined by the team behind them.
Why the Fleet Manager’s Job Has Outgrown the Fleet Department
Fleet leaders now work with finance, operations, IT, and the C-suite. They’re expected to manage lifecycle costs, improve utilization, make sense of more data, reduce risk, and show fleet’s value to leadership. Often, they do it with the limited resources.
As Anne Archambault, vice president of client experience at Merchants Fleet, explained during the webinar:
“The issue isn’t lack of capability. It’s that the role has expanded far beyond what any one person or team can reasonably manage alone.”
Kennes Apodaca, senior fleet consultant at Merchants Fleet, joined Anne on the webinar and knows that pressure firsthand. She used to manage a nationwide fleet herself and now helps fleet managers turn their data into results they can take to leadership.
The answer isn’t asking one person to do more. The strongest fleet teams extend beyond the fleet department to include partners, providers, technology, and support, all working toward the same goals.
What Sets the Best Fleet Teams Apart
Across industries and fleet sizes, high-performing fleet teams have four traits in common:
- Responsiveness. The response matches how much the issue affects the business. A vehicle-down event shouldn’t wait in the same line as a reporting request.
- Expertise. The team knows your business well enough to recommend what fits your fleet, not just what is standard.
- Accountability. Things get followed through without the fleet manager having to chase them.
- Ownership. The team looks beyond the task in front of them to find savings and catch trends before they become problems.
Anne explained the difference between the last two simply: accountability is about keeping promises, and ownership is about creating value beyond them.
At Merchants Fleet, That Team Is Built In
Merchants Fleet clients get a dedicated support team built around these four traits. Strategists, consultants, maintenance experts, and acquisition specialists, plus technology and driver support, work together on each client’s fleet and goals. That frees fleet leaders to focus on the decisions that move their business forward.
“The best measure of the team behind the fleet isn’t how many vehicles they manage. It’s the value that they create,” Anne said.
Watch the Webinar Replay
Hear Anne and Kennes go deeper on each trait, share client stories, and answer audience questions on AI, data, and how to evaluate a fleet partner.
Watch the full replay on YouTube: