Mobility-as-a-Service has today become a ‘buzz phrase’, but few businesses are truly embracing the development that has been at the heart of Goodwood Corporate Mobility for more than two decades.
‘Mobility’ has always been an intricate part of fleet management but today, according to Tony Donnelly, chief executive of Goodwood Corporate Mobility, it has taken on a whole new meaning - but one that the company introduced and launched to the market in June 1995.
Mr Donnelly, the ‘godfather’ of corporate mobility, says fleet decision-makers wanting to embrace the corporate mobility mindset should focus on compiling a customisable plan that facilitated the movement of people and products to happen efficiently and easily.
That meant, said Mr Donnelly, focusing on three distinct sectors of travel provision to deliver, in addition to if business need dictated a requirement for traditional long-term vehicle operation: “A truly cost-effective method of corporate vehicle management.”
Those three categories are:
- Vehicles ‘on demand’ as opposed to ‘on standby’ - company car parks were filled with vehicles in the hope they might be required for business purposes, which made no financial or practical sense. Far better for an employer to provide a car when actually required.
- Vehicle availability based on need and practicability and not status - the corporate mobility mindset put need first and made financial sense. But Mr Donnelly said that in his more than 30 years of fleet industry experience employers had invariably put status ahead of practicality.
- Vehicle alternatives - corporate mobility could be delivered efficiently in many forms and the best way for an employee to make a journey was not always by driving a vehicle allocated to them for a multi-year fixed term.
Instead, said Mr Donnelly: “A corporate mobility manager provides options and delivers essential business travel, in whatever form is predicted as the best solution.
“They will provide employees with options. They will check to see if any other business traveller was undertaking the same journey and arrange a car share; it could be that use of a ride-hailing service made more practical and financial sense; or they would arrange to have the most economical car delivered to the driver and collected at journey’s end.
“A corporate mobility manager’s value comes from handling the strategy and the administration element of business travel by consolidating all expenses in one place. That way employers’ can control and measure all aspects of corporate mobility policy and strategy.”
He concluded: “Too often businesses believe that their vehicle leasing supplier is their corporate mobility provider. However, those same suppliers rarely, if ever, posed a customer with the question: ‘Do you really need another car contract?’
“But true corporate mobility challenges the evaluation of fleet resources, the options and alternatives that should be considered and where businesses should be looking for sensible, but practical, guidance. Doing that facilitates and analyses how vehicle usage and efficiency can become more precise.
“With the right corporate mobility manager and assistance, everything in the corporate mobility world is placed into sharp focus, where travel options become better defined and concrete trends start to emerge.
“Almost a quarter of a century ago, 36 and 48-month vehicle replacement cycles and leasing contracts proliferated regardless of business need. Little thought was given by businesses to the most cost-efficient need - when it was needed and for exactly how long. That has changed in the new world of corporate mobility and that should be the focus for all businesses.”
EDITOR’S NOTES
Goodwood Corporate Mobility is an independent business providing a wide range of services to fleets through astable of brands that includes: FleetLocum, Goodwood Rental and GoodLease.
Goodwood Rental is a joint venture with the IFC Group, which includes: BBS Fleet Logistics, IFC Fleet Services and Vertivia, an online mileage and fuel management tool.
For further information contact Goodwood Corporate Mobility chief executive Tony Donnelly on 01243 265505 or by email at td@fleetlocum.com