A recent article in Fleetpoint posed the question: “Is AI the future for fleet management?” The article raised an important question, but it scratched the surface and focused on vehicle logistics, driver safety and potential fuel consumption savings.
While these are essential management tasks, fleet management covers a much wider spectrum of activities including fleet policy, vehicle acquisition, fleet funding, maintenance management, fleet administration, accident and risk management, remarketing, driver training and management. AI will probably impact each of these disciplines to a greater or lesser degree and in different ways.
Looking at just one of these disciplines, vehicle acquisition, it is difficult to see how a fleet will operate without human expertise and involvement. Deciding which vehicles should be included on your fleet involves analysis of whole life cost/ total cost of ownership. The starting point is manufacturer and dealer terms. Negotiating these discounts and bonuses necessitates human face to face meetings. An assessment of the forecast future residual value is required to determine the vehicle’s whole life cost. There are already tools and data available to assist fleet acquisition decision making but, in the final analysis, the judgement for what to put on fleet still resides with the fleet manager and his or her management team.
Residual value forecasting which is an equally key component can utilise data and potential AI analysis but it remains a forecast based as much on individual viewpoint and experience as it does on historic data. Further it requires both macro economic forecasting and intimate industry knowledge regarding vehicle manufacturer launch plans and model replacement cycles.
Those fleets which lease or contract hire vehicles will negotiate rentals with leasing company partners as opposed to negotiating vehicle acquisition prices and forecasting future residual values. This still involves human relationships and interaction. The leasing companies suppliers will in turn have gone through the process outlined above regarding vehicle purchasing and residual value forecasting.
AI will undoubtedly help vehicle acquisition, but I feel it is unlikely that it will ultimately replace human involvement. As mentioned at the start of this article, vehicle acquisition is just one discipline within the broad remit of fleet management. I will consider the other disciplines periodically over the coming weeks.
