COMPANY PROFILE
2014
Eqstra Fleet management goes the Eqstra mile
CompANY PROFILE
Fleet management goes the Eqstra mile Editorial: Colin Chinery Production: James Clark Five years ago Eqstra Fleet Management made an operational leap – differentiating into a services business still underpinned by leasing. As a result a client is given a focussed perspective; one fleet, one view, one control, one invoice. “If you don’t have a full sight of all of your costs there’s no way you can control them. And when that happens you don’t really have management,” says Managing Director Murray Price. IndustrySA reports.
Corporate fleets have many drivers, with the most efficient being masterminded by a solo co-ordinator.
chain. Many fleet operators miss this - they don’t see it as a direct cost,” says Managing Director, Murray Price.
Today in South Africa the undisputed fleet management leader is Eqstra Fleet Management, pioneer of the one-stop fleet management platform of services which include finance, maintenance, insurance, accident management, vehicle rental, vehicle tracking and most importantly managing driver behaviour and risks to limit accidents and reduce costs. For most of its 30 year operational history Eqstra Fleet Management operated in the conventional vehicle leasing niche. But five years ago it made an operational leap – the first in South Africa - by differentiating into a services business still underpinned by leasing. “We wanted to show our customers the benefits through cost analysis of a single access into a multi-platform of services versus the cost of dealing with independent suppliers in the
DRIVING DOWN COSTS
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From the start Eqstra Fleet Management - based in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban - has grown its managed offering which now also includes; online procurement, stand- alone maintenance management, stand- alone accident management, and license and fines administration. Each service is offered as a separate to nonleasing larger fleet operators who can choose from this basket of services to manage and drive down costs. Major clients include; South African Breweries, the South African Revenue Services and the City of Johannesburg. And of some 60,000 vehicles under management, 17,000- 18,000 are under lease, with the rest signed up for related services including telematics or
Eqstra Fleet Management
tracking solutions. “As an all-inclusive fleet management company our focus is on leveraging customer- beneficial technology,” says Price. “When we come in and engage with a customer we take his current costs and undertake a ROI model to show what he will pay for our services and the return he will make. And that’s quite a unique approach. “We provide customised solutions, our own warranties, insurance and front-end accident management. We cover the whole spectrum and our focus with clients is all about ROI.” This all-inclusive offering is the main reason behind Eqstra’s growth in the last five years. “When we set up our strategy, fleet management in South Africa was very similar to the UK where a leasing arrangement would be an operating rental or an operating rental with maintenance
added. “But this wasn’t really adding value to the market. A typical client would still have to go to a third party for telematics or tracking, to another for insurance and yet another for accident management and so on. Invariably, most corporates ended up with eight or more suppliers delivering a single fleet solution. “Our thinking was that if we could bring all these services in-house it would put them on a single integrated platform, delivering for the client an end to end, one-stop solution. “As a result you would have one view of your fleet in terms of total cost of ownership; one fleet, one view, one control, one invoice. We believe this is the only way to manage a fleet, because if you don’t have a full sight of all of your costs there’s no way you can control them. And when that happens you don’t really have management.”
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CompANY PROFILE KEEP ON TRACKING A key component of Eqstra’s growth is GPS Tracking Solutions which it has brought to the market with outstanding success. GPS controls real time speed, enabling fleets to prevent speeding and the associated fines and administration. In some cases the cost benefit can be as high as 20% in terms of both fuel and accidents says Price. When GPS was incorporated into Eqstra Fleet Management the company had between two and three thousand units on South African roads. Since then Eqstra has grown this to 18,000. “Market research we’ve been doing shows that most large fleet operators are starting to say the same - they are looking for one integrated solution. And while GPS is fairly small in the telematics industry, GPS is tailored for the corporate fleet and specifically to communicate and to provide data to us as a business.” The GPS system combines tracking information with fuel and maintenance data. And as Price says, “this is where we really get the value added benefit for our client. “Here’s an example. When a client takes a GPS system, fuel card and the leasing from us we are able to manage that vehicle by the kilometre. We can say to the client that his total cost of operation per km is X per vehicle. We can control speeding – GPS is the only tracking system in the world able
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to limit speed on a vehicle according to speed zones. We are even able to benchmark a specific vehicles cost to other clients vehicles, to assist our clients in becoming the cost leader in their respective sector.
“As an all-inclusive fleet management company our focus is on leveraging customer- beneficial technology” “We can also manage the driver far more effectively on behalf of the company. If the tracking system shows a particular driver is prone to consistent speeding we can see if it is reducing fuel efficiency. By taking a maintenance intervention analysis we can see whether brake pads and tyres are wearing faster as a result of driver behaviour. “We believe it’s 40% vehicle, 60% driver. That’s why a lot of our investment and effort is spent on managing driver behaviour as much as making sure you’ve got the right vehicle
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CompANY PROFILE for the application “We are able to advise the client that if the driver persists in driving this way, maintenance costs will go up, fuel costs will be far higher than they should be, and ultimately the driver is a risk for an accident. In effect we are able to intervene proactively before an accident happens.” By integrating all services in a single system, Eqstra have created a “win-win situation” says Price. “Some 60% of our income is now derived from value-added products and 40% from the core leasing. And obviously it takes a little bit of risk away from our side since quite a lot of vehicle risk is invested upfront and it takes four to five years to recover your cash.” Eqstra is now at the point of being a sector thought leader, sharing information, case studies, insights and best practice. “If we don’t share this information we are not going to have impact. “Last year we interviewed 60 companies in South Africa about their fleet strategies and what they would like to see in a
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Murray Price
Southern Air Conditioning
McCarthy Commercial Boksburg P.O. Box 10502, Fonteinriet, 1464, Cnr Dormehl & 14th Ave, Anderbolt Boksburg North, 1464
Tel : 011 916 7100
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CompANY PROFILE service offering and published these findings. “Now we have just produced our first white paper for 2014 on fuel pricing and projected fuel pricing. Fuel prices fluctuate of course, and clients were asking us ‘what do I put in my budget for fuel expenditure next year’? Very few people have the time to do a statistical analysis and deliver guidance, so we see this as part of our service offering.
CLIENT UNDERSTANDING “And through GPS we will reduce that cost, by for example, advising on which vehicles are more fuel efficient and greener. Our relationship with major auto manufacturers enables bulk buying, the benefits of which are passed on to the client, and since vehicles emit a lot of emissions we see our role in advising and guiding not
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only from the perspective of costs but also environmental friendliness.” Eqstra, says Price, has developed into a client understanding model, revealing what the vehicle does for the client and managing its costs. “In effect we are an IT business that performs the very best fleet management, not a fleet management business that happens to do IT. And without such a system in this business, you are dead in the water.”
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For more on Eqstra Fleet Management, follow this link: http:// videos.blinktower.com/medias/
Southern Air Conditioning
CK/1988030784/23 | VAT 4110103613
stablished in 1984, Fred’s Auto Body is the premier automotive body repair company in the Germiston region. We carry a three-year workmanship warrantee and a lifetime paint warrantee on all repairs. Our state-of-the-art, 2000m² premises has ample parking and 24 hour towing facility. We have managed to gain 12 motor manufacturer approvals from VW, Ford, Hyundai, Seat, Mazda, Nissan, Toyota, Honda, GM, GM Niche, Kia and Audi. We are proud members of the Retail Motor Industry (RMI) and Sambra. We are recognised by all of the major insurers and have strong relationships with many corporate companies. Our facility recycles all of its waste and we use a Waterbourne Paint System to ensure environmental friendliness.
Contact Details Cnr Main Reef Road and Homestead Avenue, Germiston, Ext. 11, 79167 Senderwood 2145, | Latitude: -26.19542 Longitude: 28.18259 Tel: (011) 822-3360/1 | (011) 822-1452/62 | (011) 822-3303 | (011) 822-3867 Fax: (011) 822-1317 | (011) 822-7330
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(0)1603 618 000 info@industrysa.com East Coast Promotions Ltd, Ferndale Business Centre, 1 Exeter Street. Norwich, Norfolk NR2 4QB