Author: Fiona Soltes

Small adjustments can sometimes make a big impact. For those who work with utility trucks, details like properly placed steps, strategically placed handles, appropriately grippy surfaces and convenient storage can mean the difference between safety and injury. A careful eye toward work truck specs, then, can aid in ergonomics – and result in a happier, healthier workforce.

Chris Jolly, director of operations, fleet services, for Duke Energy Carolinas West Region, said that at one point, some of the utility’s trucks didn’t have appropriate storage locations for orange safety cones, and other storage locations weren’t working due to company-mandated changes in cone sizes. So, cones often were picked up and thrown in the bed of a truck. Workers who did this job after job, day after day, could have been exposed to stress injuries in the shoulder and back. But now all of the trucks have cone storage capabilities on or near the front bumpers, and the next generation of trucks will include further improvements.

Jolly also reported that as of late September, his entire region – including nine garage locations – has been injury-free for five years. That kind of accomplishment takes a decided focus on the company safety culture, and proper truck and equipment specs play a role as well.

Every year at Duke Energy, fleet services schedules a “Road Show.” These meetings, Jolly said, are intended to serve as places to gather ideas and improvement recommendations from customers, customer delivery (distribution), transmission, fleet services, health and safety, and OEM representatives. There’s classroom time, trucks on hand to inspect and touch, and opportunities for everyone to provide input. Jolly takes part to better understand what his customers are saying, and to be able to support them once trucks arrive and throughout the lives of the vehicles.

“We’ll go through line item by line item,” he said. “We get so many different ideas, and each idea is addressed and considered.”

Jolly has learned, for example, to consider the height of steps used to get in and out of a truck. Grab handles – including those for getting into and out of an aerial device – should allow operators and passengers to follow the three-points-of-contact rule, which states that with two hands and two feet, three of the four should be in contact with the ground or equipment until stability is established. Duke Energy has experimented with different surfaces on steps and the like, working to find solutions that are aggressive enough for boots to “stick” in adverse conditions but not so aggressive that they may catch pant legs and create a hazard.

Jolly also has gained a greater understanding of the importance of housekeeping in the backs of trucks – and around pedestals – with items properly stowed to avoid anyone tripping over them. In addition to helping prevent tripping, this allows technicians to better position themselves ergonomically when making repairs around the pedestals, torqueing bolts or making hydraulic repairs. One Road Show uncovered the importance of the truck’s toolbox configuration and placement to prevent line technicians from having to crawl under the boom or over material to access the toolbox, creating a safer overall work environment.

The Awareness Challenge
At Element Fleet Management (www.elementfleet.com), meanwhile, Ken Gillies, senior truck consultant, said that – in terms of ergonomics – he’s been hearing about reduced seat travel, the adjustment that allows for proper driver positioning and back support. Positioning and back support can be put at risk in certain circumstances, particularly when full-sized vans are replaced with smaller cargo vans.

“As the vans have gotten smaller, the driver compartment also has shrunk, especially when there’s a need for a partition in the vehicle,” Gillies said. “The problem with that is that a driver taller than 5’10” will be pretty cramped. The other challenge is that seats have gotten narrower along with the reduced seat travel. What you end up with there is that drivers have weight borne by the side of the seat rather than the cushion inside. That can lead to pinched nerves and numbness in the legs. I’ve had specific interactions with customers where this has been a problem.”

The good news is that Gillies is seeing more collaboration between company leadership and end users of equipment in general, including the use of on-site visits so that leaders can observe not just how a vehicle is being used, but also how the employee interacts with the vehicle.

“Awareness is a challenge for many fleet managers,” he said. “You can’t possibly know everything about everything. Some things just don’t hit their radar until they’re forced into it because of an unfortunate accident.”

In sharing what he’s seen work for others, however, clients have told Gillies they’re glad they’ve been made aware. In addition, input from the field “has to be taken to heart and analyzed,” he said. “Drivers may ask for the sun, moon and stars, but in my experience, they’re appreciative of someone taking an interest.”

About the Author: Fiona Soltes is a longtime freelance writer based just outside Nashville, Tennessee. Her clients have represented a variety of sectors, including fleet, engineering, technology, logistics, business services, retail, disaster preparedness and material handling. Prior to her freelance career, Soltes worked as a staff writer at newspapers in Tennessee and Texas.

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Reducing Injury Statistics
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) make up one in three cases of worker injury across the nation. The service sector – including the utility industry – accounts for one in for four work-related MSDs.

So, how can fleet work to reduce those statistics? Chris Jolly, director of operations, fleet services, for Duke Energy Carolinas West Region, said creating a safety culture requires making things “personal” with employees. “I always want to set the expectation that we work safely,” he said. “That’s our number one priority. But number two, we actively care about you as an employee. I want you to have that same philosophy for yourself, and that same caring attitude about your teammate. We want you to go home to your family every day the way you came in.”

Being a utility fleet manager today can be tough. How much tougher will it be tomorrow?

With the constant advancement of technology, the increasing need for communications savvy and leadership acumen, ever-decreasing budgets, and an aging workforce being replaced by a younger cohort lacking institutional knowledge and experience, it’s a nail-biter of a time.

So, how does a utility fleet manager prepare for the future?

Gary Lentsch, CAFM, fleet manager for the Eugene Water & Electric Board in Eugene, Oregon, said that people skills are huge, especially when it comes to the ability to “hold yourself accountable and focus on the things that matter most to the operation.”

Times have changed a lot since Lentsch started in fleet almost 40 years ago, and they’re only going to keep changing. It used to be that a fleet manager started as a mechanic and worked his or her way up. Today, however, with educational programs specifically aimed at the career and companies increasingly expecting relevant certifications and training, there can be additional emphasis on the “professional” side of being a fleet professional. That can mean higher-level presentations to management, greater participation with regard to company objectives and an elevated need to manage “up,” as well as manage down.

In addition, Lentsch noted that it is essential for a fleet manager to have the ability to use basic technology tools like Microsoft Office to create PowerPoint presentations and incorporate formulas into Excel spreadsheets.

“Excel is one that I see a lot of folks struggling with,” he said.

Paul Lauria, longtime fleet management consultant and president of Mercury Associates (https://mercury-assoc.com), took that a step further. The utility industry as a whole, he said, remains behind the curve when it comes to the application of data analysis to decision-making, forecasting and planning as it relates to managing a fleet.

Microsoft Excel is a very powerful and often-used tool, he said, “but the future is going to be about the Internet of Things and the integration of data from a wide array of sources – from your work order management system, your fuel management system, from National Weather Service, from a workforce management system, from a financial management system – to create much more of a real-time view of what’s going on with the fleet. That’s something that, I think, most utility fleet managers are not prepared for.”

Lauria sees three challenges bearing down on fleet managers that he often terms, collectively, as “the perfect storm”: ongoing advances in automotive technology, like the electrification of vehicles; advances in information technology, such as the Internet of Things; and the present and coming loss of institutional knowledge as the current aging workforce retires.

“Most utility companies today are highly dependent on the practical experience of fleet professionals, who, in many cases, worked their way up through the ranks,” Lauria said. “These are folks that often have strong qualitative skills. They don’t have good Microsoft Excel spreadsheet skills, but they have a very strong, intuitive grasp of what it takes to keep vehicles and equipment in service. They’ve built up relationships with business unit representatives, with suppliers, with mechanics, with operators, over decades. And much of that knowledge is in the process of being lost. These professionals are being replaced by a new generation of professionals who are more comfortable working with numbers, who are not afraid of being more transparent, more accountable and more objective in the measurement of performance. But they don’t have the practical experience of having turned a wrench or worked on a shop floor. For the next 10 to 15 years, in my opinion, industry after industry after industry is going to have to navigate this change that’s underway. … We’re seeing a lot of storm clouds gathering in a lot of the organizations that we’re working with. And it’s that human resources component that’s getting the least attention.”

About the Author: Fiona Soltes is a longtime freelance writer based just outside Nashville, Tennessee. Her clients have represented a variety of sectors, including fleet, engineering, technology, logistics, business services, retail, disaster preparedness and material handling. Prior to her freelance career, Soltes worked as a staff writer at newspapers in Tennessee and Texas.

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Organizational Prep
At the same time individual fleet professionals are ensuring they have the skills needed for a successful future, organizations may need to take steps to guarantee they’re ready, too. Paul Lauria, president of fleet management consulting firm Mercury Associates, said that includes several components.

First, although it may not be as much of an issue in utility fleets as elsewhere, a robust replacement program should be in place. This can help reduce demands for corrective maintenance and repairs, move toward more predictive repair and preventive maintenance, and reduce pressure on in-house maintenance and repair programs.

Next, fleet management practices must be institutionalized. All too often, Lauria said, knowledge about what needs to be done and the way it should be handled resides solely in the fleet professional’s head. The development of formal policies and procedures, awareness of key performance indicators and the process for benchmarking those KPIs should be considered. In addition to helping prevent the loss of institutional knowledge – especially after the retirement of a longtime fleet professional – the gathering of this information can help uncover and address any weak links in the chain, Lauria said.

And lastly, organizations must think about the employee skills that will be needed to complement technology in the days to come. The addition of new technology solutions such as telematics doesn’t lead to better decision-making on its own, Lauria said. Rather, software is simply an enabler; employees must be able to use it effectively. “At Mercury, we see organizations that have invested millions of dollars in information technology, but their decisions are not much more data-driven than they were 30 years ago,” he said. “They’re using the systems, essentially, as very expensive electronic filing cabinets.”

Dale Collins, CAFM, fleet services supervisor for Fairfax Water in Virginia, faces an increasingly disturbing and familiar scenario in the next handful of years: Five of the eight people working in his two repair facilities will retire.

The good news is that his organization is “pretty attuned” to the so-called Silver Tsunami of aging baby boomers; a quarter of the organization will retire within the same time frame.

“So, we’ve been challenged to create some kind of succession plan,” Collins said, “to figure out the best way to approach this, so we can capture and transfer our institutional knowledge and technical expertise. Then have a good recruitment plan and hire top-notch technicians.”

Ask anyone in literally any industry today, and the story is the same: There simply aren’t enough willing and able workers to handle the roles currently filled by the older set. It’s particularly tough in skilled labor; there can be misconceptions about salaries, opportunities and advancement possibilities. There also can be lack of awareness about the need to attract and train students long before they graduate high school. Due to the dearth of candidates, companies are having to take on employees at ground level – and bump up salaries and benefits.

“There’s been a complete shift,” said Lucas A. White, interim associate dean at Madison Area Technical College School of Applied Science, Engineering & Technology. “Organizations are desperate and can’t be as selective now. The industry has had to increase wages, knowing that they aren’t going to find somebody for $10 to $12 an hour. The students know they can get that in fast food, without a skill.”

The school, then, has worked with partners in various industries to help students gain appropriate knowledge. Industry contacts work with the school’s faculty and career and employment center on both curriculum and internship opportunities. And White encourages anyone with skilled labor holes to fill to look for a chance to do the same.

“With the skilled labor gap, the partnerships between industry and higher education become more crucial,” he said. “It’s going to take all of us to overcome this shortage.”

On His Radar
Collins has this on his radar. He serves on the diesel advisory board of a nearby community college. He’s aiming to host a career day, and to hopefully set up an apprenticeship program. A summer internship already is in place at Fairfax Water, so there is precedent. Along the way, the department also is working with management and human resources to develop current technicians for advancement opportunities, reviewing job descriptions and adjusting as necessary. Current technicians are maintaining notebooks of details that might answer questions for future staff.

One of the challenges for utility fleets, Collins said, is that “you have to be so well-versed in so many areas.” It helps to have someone with a basic skill set – but technicians also must be willing to branch out with less-than-familiar equipment or systems.

“I think you’ve got to find the right fit, from the time they come in the door,” he said. And once they’re in, they may need additional incentive to stay, since the market is so competitive. Benefits at Fairfax Water include health, dental and vision insurance, retirement, federal holidays, annual leave and income stability. There also are in-house training opportunities and a generous education reimbursement plan.

“We’re great for people who want to find a home, a career, and be there for a long time,” Collins said.

Workers are encouraged to take training courses during the day if possible, rather than in their time off at night.

“We start early,” Collins said. “And when they have to go to school at night, after a long day of work, they’re not going to learn then. Coming in the next morning will be tough. We try to make it easy for them.”

“Easy” is not typically the word that comes to mind with recruiting and retaining quality technicians. But Collins, like many, is keeping one eye on today’s staff – and the other watching for tomorrow’s.

“We’ve been discussing this for some time,” he said.

About the Author: Fiona Soltes is a longtime freelance writer based just outside Nashville, Tennessee. Her clients have represented a variety of sectors, including fleet, engineering, technology, logistics, business services, retail, disaster preparedness and material handling. Prior to her freelance career, Soltes worked as a staff writer at newspapers in Tennessee and Texas.

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Big-Picture Recruiting
It’s one thing to maintain a small staff of technicians; it’s another to maintain 165 in 42 garage locations.

At Southern California Edison (SCE), the hiring strategy is to recruit high-caliber talent, which has led to “success, stability and less turnover,” said Robert Ruiz, principal manager, fleet operation and maintenance, transportation services.

So, how does that happen, while so many other organizations are facing challenges in recruiting and retaining quality employees?

• SCE seeks out employees who have a good work ethic, in addition to strong diagnostic skills, the ability to work well with others, and a willingness to learn beyond what they already know and to work safely.
• The majority of SCE’s newly hired technicians come from local auto dealerships and independent shops, Ruiz said. “We also try to recruit from local community colleges and trade schools.”
• SCE promotes from within. In addition, compensation includes health benefits, an inclusive work environment and compressed work schedules that candidates find appealing.
• SCE uses job employment websites and social media sites such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Glassdoor and LinkedIn to reach candidates, and recently launched the SCE Talent Network at www.edisoncareers.com to help “track and nurture” prospective workers, Ruiz said.

In addition, Ruiz said, SCE offers wages and incentives that often are superior to those offered by other local companies in Southern California. Respect, he said, is one of the foundational values of the company, and it extends to all employees.

For organizations contemplating a fleet rightsizing effort that won’t anger end users, here’s some advice: use solid data, convey information clearly and seek understanding.

“At the end of the day, it’s ultimately about communication,” said Charlie Guthro, vice president of global strategic services for fleet management company ARI (www.arifleet.com). Prior to a rightsizing initiative, operators won’t necessarily be saying that the fleet has extraneous equipment, while others in the company may be focused on budget. But when fleet professionals get to know their internal customers and their needs, Guthro said, greater collaboration is possible.

“When you rightsize a fleet, it gives organizations more opportunity to hold on to their most critical resource: their people,” he said. “You have to approach it from, ‘We’re not here to do things to you, but for you, and we want you to be involved.’”

That’s easy enough to say, but it can be challenging to deliver, especially with new management – those who want to make a definitive mark through changes without perhaps fully surveying the landscape or considering long-term impact. This can affect productivity and diminish employee buy-in.

Imagine, for example, a utility fleet that cuts back on lesser-used equipment, believing it will be available as needed from external rental providers.

When discussions begin with a rental company, Guthro said, “those outsourced parties are cooperative, and say, ‘Yes, we can provide that for you, and here’s the price point.’ It’s a nice, pretty picture. But when you have to get that equipment, you have to understand that you’ll likely be competing with others who have the same expectation, and demand may outpace supply.”

When needed equipment is not available, challenges go beyond the immediate situation; employees have negative feelings because workflow is disrupted, which can disintegrate trust over time.

Matt Gilliland, director of operations support for Nebraska Public Power District, said there have been times he’s seen rightsizing efforts engender some pushback. But fortunately, NPPD is not an organization that “lends itself to pouting and complaining” once changes are made. The key, he believes, lies in having information readily available to back up what needs to be done, as well as sharing it with business leaders.

“It all boils down to access and readiness of the assets,” Gilliland said. “A lot of times, with rightsizing, you’re asking business units or end users to share assets or pool assets, and sometimes their work causes them to go in two different directions.”

The right data, however, separates reality and perceptions. But when considering that data, “you have to be ready to be wrong,” Gilliland said. “In general, the fleet person wants the contingent of vehicles to be as small as possible, whereas the end user wants it to be as large as possible. Somewhere in the middle is what’s right.”

He also said his first thought with any effort is the idea of “doing no harm,” which helps ease communications with business unit leaders and end users. Quite often, Gilliland said, when GPS or other measuring points are introduced to business leaders to support a cutback, the response is, “Yeah, we’re seeing that, too” or “We’re not surprised by that.” With proper evidence in the picture, he said, “they’re generally pretty supportive. At the end of the day, they’re trying to run a business unit, and just like our unit needs to run affordably, so does theirs.”

Proper language and phrasing also help. Gilliland is fond of the term “optimizing” to cast things in a better light. And this last suggestion is something Gilliland said he learned from his colleagues, such as fleet support specialist Rob Barbur: “One thing we’ve done – and Rob has done this consistently – is to also talk to the end user about what they need that they don’t have.” That way, Gilliland said, it’s not a one-way conversation of having to defend what’s already in place; fleet professionals and end users can work together on what could be.

About the Author: Fiona Soltes is a longtime freelance writer based just outside Nashville, Tennessee. Her clients have represented a variety of sectors, including fleet, engineering, technology, logistics, business services, retail, disaster preparedness and material handling. Prior to her freelance career, Soltes worked as a staff writer at newspapers in Tennessee and Texas.

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Making the Case for Rightsizing
Are you ready to back up your rightsizing argument but unsure how to do it? Consider these three tips.

1. Know what information to collect. Matt Gilliland, director of operations support for Nebraska Public Power District, said utilization rates from miles, hours and power-takeoff standpoints can be helpful. “And look at those over a particular term or period, whether nominalized by day, week, year or however else you want to do it.” In addition, he said, “reach out to other organizations that are like-minded and like-sized, and do some benchmarking and comparisons. I’ve found benchmarking to be a tremendous tool when it comes to having the right assets.”

2. Ensure the fleet is properly categorized in its utilization. “You can’t have an expectation that all equipment will be used 40-plus hours a week,” said Charlie Guthro, vice president of global strategic services for fleet management company ARI. “You have to understand the uniqueness of your fleet. You can’t broad-brush it based on what’s worked for another organization.” 

3. Get help if you need it. Fleet management companies such as ARI can assist in gathering and preparing data that will help fleet professionals “move from anecdotal to evidence-based decisions,” Guthro said. They also can help provide a window into the best practices of other companies.

As drivers and fleet professionals explore the possibilities and realities of vehicle subscription models, they’re in good company. Fleet management organizations also are kicking the tires of the concept – including how it might eventually apply to utility fleets.

Under the subscription model, subscribers have access to vehicles on demand, often with insurance and maintenance included, and can switch out vehicle models, too.

Eric Schell, product manager for driver tools at Element Fleet Management (www.elementfleet.com), and Jayme Schnedeker, Element’s director of fleet products, said they are in discovery phase with the idea and looking to Element’s experience with car sharing for cues.

“For companies like us, as well as for manufacturers, the question is, where do we fit into all of this?” Schnedeker said. “How can we provide services for our core customers that make financial sense for them?” The subscription model provides flexibility in areas where there hasn’t traditionally been any, he added, and with individual consumers increasingly using services such as Uber and Lyft, those expectations of convenience are being transferred to work life.

Traditional fleet pools and micro car-sharing markets give fleets a taste of multiple drivers using one vehicle fractionally, Schell said. Even so, he believes, adoption of the subscription model in a broader sense would require “a fairly significant cultural change of how our customers are looking to do business today.”

In addition, a variety of questions are yet to be answered: How long would a fleet need to keep a vehicle before swapping it out? What if a fleet needs immediate access to a particular type of vehicle, but it’s unavailable? What type of maintenance should be included in the service fee, and who would perform it? What about insurance, mileage limitations and/or usage limitations? And could the subscription model work as well for, say, a bucket truck and a lightly upfitted pickup?

So far, subscription models on the market generally involve higher-end vehicles. Brands like Porsche, Cadillac, Volvo and BMW offer options that are more accommodating than long-term leases. Programs like these allow drivers to use, for example, a sedan during the week but switch to an SUV for a trip. Porsche lets drivers switch as often as they like; BOOK by Cadillac lets subscribers rent different vehicles as often as 18 times a year. Currently these services are not available nationwide but could be in the future.

In the meantime, when it comes to fleets, there’s still much to be figured out. Schnedeker, for example, brought up the topic of safety related to driver behavior.

“The driver has to make sure they’re driving the vehicles safely, and that they’re not distracted,” he said. “That can have big implications on the cost of insurance. As we think about these models, it’s important to think about what role the driver plays and how that might impact either the price of the subscription or the type of vehicle that is available for that driver to use.” That also brings up questions about training for drivers on specific types of vehicles and equipment.

“What would make the subscriber eligible to participate?” Schell asked. “We’re potentially looking at a world where we might be giving traditionally non-fleet drivers access to fleet vehicles. There’s a certain level of vetting we do to ensure that the driver getting a vehicle is going to be responsible with that vehicle. Do these same rules apply to this new generation of subscribers or will adjustments need to be made? That’s another item that needs to be fleshed out.”

Finally, Schell and Schnedeker said, there’s a need to ensure vehicles and equipment would always be available at a standard the subscriber would expect, especially as those assets travel from fleet to fleet. It’s one thing with a luxury car that can be detailed, but what about a work truck that typically would see harsher use?

“It’s certainly going to be a challenge with the subscription model,” Schnedeker said. “Some asset types might not fit the model as well, just because of how they’re used.”

About the Author: Fiona Soltes is a longtime freelance writer based just outside Nashville, Tennessee. Her clients have represented a variety of sectors, including fleet, engineering, technology, logistics, business services, retail, disaster preparedness and material handling. Prior to her freelance career, Soltes worked as a staff writer at newspapers in Tennessee and Texas.

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BOOK by Cadillac Shows How It’s Done
It’s easy to see why a subscription offering like BOOK by Cadillac (www.bookbycadillac.com) would be attractive to users: They can switch between a variety of vehicles without a long-term commitment, drive up to 2,000 miles per month, and have maintenance, insurance, registration and detailing included in the flat fee. Since its launch in early 2017, more than 8,000 people have expressed interest.

The service also provides benefits for the OEM. For one thing, it exposes the Cadillac product line to a wide range of potential buyers who otherwise might not have considered the brand.

“In an early pilot in New York, a number of BOOK by Cadillac members ultimately decided to buy or lease a Cadillac from a dealer,” said Melody Lee, global director of BOOK by Cadillac. “We feel strongly that the program will have a positive overall effect on Cadillac, perceptions of the brand and, ultimately, the sale and lease of Cadillac vehicles.”

So far, the majority of program users have been “a younger demographic than the typical Cadillac buyer,” Lee said.

In the U.S., BOOK by Cadillac focuses specifically on the Cadillac portfolio. “That said,” Lee added, “we are exploring how to evolve this model based on what the market and consumer demand. For example, BOOK is in a pilot stage in Munich, Germany, and under that current model, Chevrolet Camaro and Corvette performance cars are included in that fleet.”