Building your international vehicle fleet at Fleet LatAm Conference

Session one of the Fleet LatAm Conference opened-up with a discussion on the strategies of developing a corporate fleet policy with a Latam wide scope, and the benefits of doing so.

Although managing a fleet is often done locally, setting up a regional or international strategy can be beneficial when a company has subsidiaries and activities in various countries. Besides creating a more harmonized corporate environment, It improves transparency as well as cost efficiency.

Now, developing a regional policy can be complex due to both internal challenges like lack of mandate and top management support, and external obstacles as there is rarely a one-size-fits-all solution in terms of service offering. Nevertheless more and more companies are developing programmes with a regional character.

In this three-part session, part one featured three fleet management experts presenting case studies, highlighting what should be done regionally, what should be done locally, and the overall Dos and Don’ts of internationalization.

“To optimize fleet management, be proactive, seek the necessary information, and consider both internal and external involvement. As for the things to avoid, do not work individually or overlook additional costs,” said Kevin Kibilds from MSD.

Alberto Arellano from Nestlé highlighted that some of the company’s recent challenges have been transitioning to a hybrid fleet, efficiently monitoring the company’s collaborators, and dealing with political risks in the region.

As for this year, the challenges are working toward efficiently implementing telematics and dealing with regional changes,” Mr. Arellano said.

Also discussed during the session was the implementation of technology.

“There are opportunities in technologies such as analytics, IoT, machine learning, and artificial Intelligence but their convergence does present some risk so take care,” said Andres Arias from Neoris - Cemex.
 

left to right: Kevin Kibilds, Alberto Arellano, Andres Arias (source: Fleet LatAm)

In part two, Associate Director of talent and rewards for Willis Towers Watson Javier Brassel and LeasePlan CEO (Mexico) Regina Granados spoke about benchmarking fleet to identify the right car policy, and addressing issues such as leasing budget and cash allowance comparisons.

“In Latin America, 70% of companies have a car benfit programme in place, and cars are replaced every four years on average, of which 52% involve cash purchases by the company, and 48% entail leasing contracts,” said Mr. Brassel.

Javier Brassel (source: Fleet LatAm)

“When developing a vehicle fleet policy, the main points to consider are contract duration, vehicle selection, considering environmental and safety issues, mapping out the services involved, and contract termination details,” Ms. Granados of LeasePlan Mexico said.

Regina Granados (source: Fleet LatAm)

​​The third and final part of the morning focused on insight into fleet sales and the fleet organization of car manufacturers. Without a doubt, the supplier offering situation in Latin America is complex as there are no suppliers that can offer a region-wide solution for financing or services: leasing companies are not in every country, car manufacturers work with importers in markets, car models are not the same throughout the region, etc. 

When it comes to selecting the right car or cars for your fleet, both internal factors under your company policy (e.g safety issues, green initiative, driver profile, business objective) and external factors (e.g. fleet services, OEM organization, geographical scope) affect decision making.

Volvo Managing Director Raymundo Cavazos, Volkswagen Distribution, Fleet and Internal Audit Manager Angelica Martinez, and Renault Director of Networks and Customers Jean Michel Ferrand gave presentations with insights into the structure of the OEM fleet organisation, followed by a roundtable discussion moderated by Fleet LatAm Editor Daniel Bland about vehicle selection, powertrain options, manufacturing and distribution, and trends impacting the business offer of car manufacturers.
 

left to right: Daniel Bland, Raymundo Cavazos, Angelica Martinez, Jean Michel Ferrand (source: Fleet LatAm)