Fleet Vehicle Ordering Cycle Strategy

Rob Bradley, Strategic Consulting; Saad Ahmad, Strategic Consulting; Jaime Bowden, Corporate Marketing Communications

10 Apr 20232 min read

Building a strategy tailored to the unique needs of your fleet is key to a successful model year (MY) 2024 ordering cycle.

Element Fleet Management experts focus on delivering valuable and tangible recommendations to clients to ensure a strong fleet vehicle strategy. In fact, our partnership is proven to deliver outcomes that can positively impact your fleet and business objectives including total cost of ownership, safety, productivity, environmental footprint and more.

The case study below is an example of how we helped one client save $945,000 per month through accelerated replacement.

Lifecycle of fleet vehicles

A fleet vehicle’s lifecycle begins when it is acquired. Strategic lifecycle management of fleet vehicles is key to getting the most value out of your assets. Considerations to optimize vehicle lifecycles include:

Pre-acquisition planning
Cost analysis
New asset needs evaluation
Replacement assessment

By fully understanding the current and future needs and valuation of your fleet, you can make more informed, data-driven decisions for the MY 2024 ordering cycle. Additionally, you can then more easily factor in potential impacts to your fleet caused by supply chain and labor issues, inflation, and declining used vehicle prices.

Impact of the vehicle supply chain

While new vehicle inventory and production are beginning to normalize, supply chain restraints and residual pandemic impacts still exist. Because of this, it’s critical to your MY 2024 fleet vehicle acquisition strategy to plan early, gain stakeholder buy-in and approvals in advance of order banks opening and be ready to place orders as soon as they open to ensure you’re able to acquire the vehicles your fleet needs for the year ahead. Batch ordering and flexibility related to models, vehicle types and specifications can also make for a smoother ordering experience this year.

Benefits of utilizing a fleet management resource

Element’s Strategic Advisory Services experts provide a differentiated level of knowledge that can propel your fleet forward as you consider your strategy for the MY 2024 ordering cycle. Through start-to-finish ordering support, our consultants work with you as an extension of your fleet team to help you build a strategy tailored specifically to your fleet, positioning your unique fleet for optimal performance and lifecycle management.

Fleet vehicle acquisition cost savings

As the ordering cycle for MY 2024 vehicles approaches, there is much more to consider from a total cost of ownership perspective than just the up-front cost of the vehicle. That’s why it’s important to do your due diligence through robust pre-acquisition planning and cost analysis.

Your partners at Element can help you ensure you’re considering all operating costs associated with fleet vehicles which can result in a stronger MY 2024 strategy. These operating costs include maintenance expenses, fuel-related costs, remarketing prices and depreciation of assets. By understanding the data of your fleet, you can make more informed decisions for replacement.

Vehicle lifecycle replacement case study

Challenge

With the Ford Fusion being discontinued and an excess number of vehicles identified, an HVAC and securities industry fleet with over 10,000 units expressed to Element a need to reduce overall fleet spend.

Solution

Through total cost of ownership analysis, asset needs evaluation and replacement assessment, Element presented data to support recommendations to achieve the client’s need to reduce overall fleet spend:

Result

Through our partnership, Element’s client saved $660K per month on 1,100 Ford Fusions removed and not replaced plus $285K per month on 2,100 Ford Fusions replaced by Chevrolet Malibu – equaling $945K total savings per month.

Take on MY 2024 ordering with confidence

Contact Element Fleet Management to realize optimal fleet vehicle replacement strategies for the upcoming ordering cycle.