By Fleet Management Weekly Staff
June 5, 2024
Even the best-run fleets encounter issues that take their vehicles out of commission. Blown tires, worn brake pads, and even routine oil changes can result in costly downtime if you don’t plan accordingly. A solid preventive maintenance schedule and access to reliable service providers will go a long way toward minimizing breakdowns and getting your vehicle back on the road as quickly as possible.
While there are a host of fleet maintenance companies on the market, FleetNet America by Cox Automotive wields a network of over 65,000 carefully vetted service providers throughout the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It has been a strong provider in the trucking space for decades, and today it offers services that include emergency roadside assistance, preventative maintenance, and towing and recovery. Its data-driven cost calculator lets clients see how much they can save with the company’s maintenance solution.
“FleetNet America is a digital-first fleet solutions marketplace,” says Arnie Braun, Senior Director of Vehicle Operations. “A little over a year ago, FleetNet America joined Cox Automotive, and that means we can bring together service providers to address a specific client’s needs with roadside assistance, tires, glass, wash, fuel delivery to vehicles, or anything else necessary during a breakdown or scheduled maintenance event.”
Selecting with Care
“When we look at selecting our service providers, the first thing we do is look at both the fleet needs and the service provider capabilities,” says Braun. “In any good marketplace, you have to add value to both parties. So, while we’re trying to consult, educate, and use calculators for our customers, we also want to go back to the service providers and share, educate, and advance them in what they’re doing. We want to keep them balanced on that scale.”
When vetting service providers, FleetNet America looks at several factors, including insurance coverage, response times, rates and capabilities. The company also gets many referrals from customers about companies they’ve worked with that they liked. FleetNet measures and monitors each service provider to determine things like how quickly they’ll accept a job or how quickly they’ll begin working on the vehicle. They also look at how the vendor does VMRS coding and what their standard labor rates are and how their overall pricing model looks.
“We want to make sure they’re competitive on all performance metrics in terms of how they work with us,” says Braun. “Their quality, speed, price, safety, all those things. We score them on all those criteria and rank them into different areas. We start at the very top–who provides the best value to customers? We work with people in that area, and then in the second tier, we coach them to try and turn them into bigger players.”
A more extensive marketplace means more service providers and competition, which usually results in higher-quality providers. When FleetNet brings on a service provider, it expects them to perform well because the provider knows they’re more likely to receive work.
Because of the high costs of vehicle maintenance and impact of downtime, fleets expect continuous improvement and smart decision making. “If a customer calls in and needs both glass and brakes, for example, we make sure to find them a provider that can handle both so that they can minimize downtime. We take all of these factors into consideration when we develop algorithms on where to dispatch vehicles.”
Safety is also a top priority for FleetNet, which is another reason the company takes vetting its service providers so seriously.
“One of our biggest commitments is to keep you moving safely and efficiently across the roads in North America,” says Braun. “So, we make sure we have safe service providers that are going to leave your vehicle in a quality position. One insightful analysis FleetNet utilizes is analyzing how much fleets can save with proper maintenance. Using the data they get from their maintenance events combined with their customers’ telematic feeds, FleetNet’s data can estimate both costs and savings.
“We can look at things like preventative maintenance spend vs. breakdown spend,” says Braun. “If we start to pull more towards preventative maintenance based on our experiences, what will that lead to in terms of cost avoidance on breakdowns? What will that lead to in hard savings on your major repairs? We pull all that together.”
A lot of what FleetNet does is in VMRS coding. FleetNet trains its employees on VMRS coding so that they can make accurate, data-driven recommendations that save their customers millions. As part of its managed care program, FleetNet goes through an approval phase that examines and audits standard rates and labor times to determine how estimated and actual costs compare.
“Data is powerful, and I think all fleet managers see that if they have the data, they can make real decisions,” says Braun. “The data shows them what to expect in terms of various factors such as age, seasonality, and models. This helps fleets to plan, to budget, and to look for improvements that can help driver better practices in their business.”
“Besides a recognizable leader like FleetNet, our other trustworthy partner brands at Cox Automotive include Manheim, Kelley Blue Book, and Autotrader. We’re thrilled to bring FleetNet into that family of brands and continue our mobility strategy,” says Braun.
