Novices with limited prior experience of the sector are increasingly shaping fleet technology, says FleetCheck.
The fleet software specialist says about one in five new customer queries it receives come from people new to their role, a surprising proportion of which are unfamiliar with vehicle management, and their needs are having an outsized impact in areas such as user interfaces.
CEO Peter Golding explained that although the fleet industry has professionalised rapidly in recent years, it is still relatively common for employees to be simply handed responsibility for their organisation’s cars and vans.
‘We get a lot of messages from people – from administrative to director level – who have been asked to manage the company fleet and want to be guided through their first steps.
‘They typically have expertise in other areas, perhaps procurement, accountancy or human resources, and were the nearest thing their organisation had to a fleet manager when someone was needed to fill that role.’
Peter said the interesting aspect of these customers is how their lack of conventional expertise is challenging fleet software companies to create new solutions to traditional fleet management issues.
‘When they approach us, they are looking to bring structure to their approach but don’t have any preconceptions about what that should look like. They simply want something easy to use and effective that can be implemented rapidly,’ he explained.
In the past, fleet software companies effectively trained these novices in streamlined versions of conventional fleet management, but new technology is opening up a range of possibilities.
‘We have been talking recently about the impact of AI on the use of fleet software, and this is one area where the impact could be significant. Large language models (LLMs) mean complete newcomers could interrogate data immediately with a high level of sophistication,’ continued Peter.
‘Each newcomer who comes to us has their own priorities, and the beauty of the LLM approach is that they will be able to pursue them in a way that can deliver results quickly.
‘Of course, some will always want the rigour of a traditional fleet management approach, and we will continue to help many become fleet professionals in this manner, but we are seeing a situation emerge where a variety of approaches are becoming available.’