Brexit, fuel and growth – the views of the fleet industry

Recently we’ve been gaining a deeper understanding of our customer’s plans for the next 12 months. To grasp this understanding, we asked them to take part in an industry survey led by ourselves that has allowed us to rank their key concerns regarding business productivity and expansion capability.

Taking the temperature of the fleet industry on a regular basis is vital, simply because technology and innovation – key priorities for those working in it – moves so fast and has an immediate knock-on-effect.

Surprisingly 55.9% of customers are unphased by the current political and market concerns primarily surrounding Brexit. Most of our customers are aiming for business expansion within the next 12 months, regardless of the concerns. Nonetheless, there is an understandable number of customers who are putting their foot on the brakes when it comes to expansion to minimise the risks that Brexit may potentially bring to many companies.

The vision and confidence for expansion in many of our customers is clear, providing us with a certain indication of the health of the fleet management process and its fundamental role played in the business operations. The main reasoning behind the poll was to build a closer relationship with our customers along with the ability to understand concerns and future plans of those customers.

As well as Brexit concerns, identification of the ongoing fuel price fluctuation has caused 78.1% of our customers to seriously consider the effect vehicle tracking can have on the revenue spent on fuel. With many of our customers managing fleets with over 10 vehicles, monitoring driving behaviour and establishing efficient routing through tracking is imperative in ensuring the surging fuel prices don’t affect productivity within their business.

What’s been great to see is the realisation that efficient and well-run fleet management is central to business operations and this view hasn’t not gone away. If anything, its resolve has been strengthened by all the macro-economic uncertainty taking place around the sector. We believe that remaining grounded throughout the current political situation is essential in retaining a high confidence level in this current time.

Although the saying ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’ isn’t quite appropriate here but challenges out of the sector’s control have certainly put it to the test – and it’s come out on top, as the results show. As a company we believe that remaining grounded throughout the current political situation is essential in retaining a high confidence level in this current time.