Ordering process

 

The ordering process is one of the most important fleet management processes, as it is a reflection of the heart of the fleet management practice: the car policy. Furthermore, it involves a large number of internal and external stakeholders: employee, dealer, leasing company, fleet manager and HR responsible.

In discussions we had with over 100 fleet managers, we’ve discussed this process plentiful and learned that every company In this blog, we will be looking at the situation in which a fleet manager handles an ordering process without any supporting software, and look at how a fleet management software tool, such as Headlight, can enable the fleet manager do a better job. For this example, we’ll assume a company that works a budget-based car policy. The latter means that the employee has the freedom to configure a vehicle of her/his choice, within the budget limit associated with the car policy level of the employee. Next, the company works with multiple leasing companies, to ensure competitive prices.

An overview of all assumptions are listed below:

• Budget-based car policy
• Multi-supplier set-up for leasing companies
• Budget cost of the vehicle is determined internally/by third party, to make sure apples are compared with apples when receiving the lease quotes from the suppliers
• Employee can alter their choice and/or request budget costs for multiple vehicles
• Employees are allowed to contribute to the cost of the vehicle with a personal contribution if the budget cost of the vehicle exceeds the budget limit

Before Headlight

Below, a graphical overview is given of how the ordering process at the company could look like. In light blue, the “touch points” of the fleet managers are situated.

We can see the fleet manager is heavily involved in the ordering process, with 12 manual tasks:

1. Check which employee(s) are eligible to order a new car
2. Verify with HR what the correct car policy level is for that employee
3. Notify the employee that a new car can be ordered
4. Receiving and checking dealer quote(s) for policy compliance
5. Requesting leasing quotations from all leasing companies
6. Follow-up with the leasing companies until all lease quotes are received
7. Analyse and compare the different leasing quotes.
8. If cheapest lease quote results in a budget cost for the vehicle that is above the budget limit: check with payroll what the required personal contribution is
9. Notify the employee of the result and request approval for the order. Repeat step 4 to 9 if necessary
10. Follow up and receive confirmation. Select leasing company where the order will be placed (default: cheapest)
11. Sign off, and/or request sign-off of from the HR Business partner and/or other relevant internal people. Follow-up until all signatures are collected.
12. Place order by sending the signed lease quote to the leasing company. Mention all relevant (driver) information

 

 

After Headlight

It is clear from the above enumeration of tasks that a lot of them are manual and repetitive tasks. Indeed, with specific software, these tasks can be automated, so that the fleet manager is unburdened and does not have to manually adjust excel files, follow up and remind colleagues about requests, and act as intermediate communication hub between all parties involved.

Below image again shows the the fleet manager’s involvement in light blue. The manual tasks have evolved to:

1. Check which employee(s) are eligible to order a new car
2. Verify with HR what the correct car policy level is for that employee
3. Notify the employee that a new car can be ordered
4. Receiving and checking dealer quote(s) for policy compliance
5. Requesting leasing quotations from all leasing companies
6. Follow-up with the leasing companies until all lease quotes are received
7. Analyse and compare the different leasing quotes.
8. If cheapest lease quote results in a budget cost for the vehicle that is above the budget limit: check with payroll what the required personal contribution is
9. Notify the employee of the result and request approval for the order. Repeat step 4 to 9 if necessary
10. Select leasing company where the order will be placed (default: cheapest)
11. Sign off, and/or request sign-off of from the HR Business partner and/or other relevant internal people. Follow-up until all signatures are collected.
12. Place order by sending the signed lease quote to the leasing company. Mention all relevant (driver) information

 

That’s right! Only one manual tasks is left: the selection/approval of the lease quote and thus the company car order. All the rest is taken care of by Headlight.

 

Let’s see what else the fleet manager is able to do now:

✅ Renegotiate SLAs with providers based on process data

✅ Review the car offering and discuss fleet budget with internal HR and finance stakeholders

✅ Work on strategic fleet and mobility projects, such as charging infrastructure at work

✅ Review fleet processes and address bottlenecks

✅ Evaluate supplier prices from multi-bid results

✅ .. and much more!

 

As mentioned: Headlight allows you to do better work 💪🏼

How Headlight can also help you

Whether your car policy works with a car list or budget method, you can easily configure and manage your policy and order possibilities within Headlight. Via its flexible low-code approach of fleet processes, the ordering process can be designed for the needs of each company.

In the below screenshot, for instance, the company requires to first ask the vehicle type the employee intends to buy (PHEV or EV), so that in case of the latter, the process of the technical audit for the charging station at home can be launched. This can easily be configured custom-made to the company. Learn more about Headlight workflows here

 

Feel free to contact us at info@letitfleet.com or reach out to discuss opportunities!