Should fleet managers reassign vehicles to balance utilization—or leave assets with their current operators and manage the differences through lifecycle planning? It sounds like a simple fleet utilization question. It isn’t. In this episode of The Fleet Success Show, five RTA fleet professionals debate one of the more nuanced questions in fleet asset management: When vehicles within the same asset class have dramatically different utilization rates, should fleet leaders move those assets between operators to keep mileage and usage closer to plan?
The answer can have significant implications for vehicle replacement planning, residual value, total cost of ownership, warranty coverage, fleet availability, and long-term capital planning.
Marc Canton is joined by Sara Burnam, Scott Conlon, Drew Morrow, and Jake Johnson to examine the issue from public-sector, consulting, heavy-duty, emergency-management, and fleet-operations perspectives.
The group explores why low-utilization vehicles can be just as important to identify as high-utilization assets; when reassigning vehicles can protect lifecycle economics; and why simply having two identical vehicles does not necessarily mean they belong in the same lifecycle or utilization class.
They also examine the human side of utilization management. Drivers and departments can develop a sense of ownership over assigned vehicles, creating what the group calls “switching friction.” That means the mathematically optimal fleet decision may not always be the most practical one. Fleet leaders have to consider the time, political capital, operational disruption, and organizational culture required to make a change.
The discussion gets especially interesting with specialized assets. Is it financially responsible to move a former patrol vehicle into an administrative role? When does the cost of removing specialized upfits outweigh the savings? Could cycling a heavy-duty truck from high-mileage highway service into lower-mileage city service extend its useful life? And should fleets deliberately maximize vehicle use while an asset is under warranty?
The central takeaway is not that every fleet should constantly rotate vehicles. It’s that fleet utilization should be actively managed with data rather than allowed to become a blind spot.
High-performing fleet leaders understand their expected utilization, identify meaningful outliers, evaluate the lifecycle and replacement implications, and then choose the intervention that produces the best outcome for their organization.
Sometimes that means reassigning an asset. Sometimes it means creating a different utilization class or replacement cycle. And sometimes the operational friction means another strategy makes more sense.
The important thing is being able to defend the decision with data.
Marc Canton serves as VP of Fleet Strategy at RTA and hosts this episode of The Fleet Success Show. He works with RTA's fleet professionals to help fleet leaders examine the operational and financial decisions that affect fleet performance. In this discussion, Marc challenges the panel to move beyond “it depends” and address the economics of utilization, replacement timing, residual value, and total cost of ownership.
Sara is a Fleet Success Manager at RTA with approximately 27 years of fleet industry experience. Her perspective on utilization management is informed by firsthand experience identifying underutilized vehicles, repurposing assets, and avoiding unnecessary replacements. In this episode, she also explores the unique challenges associated with reassigning specialized vehicles such as marked police units.
Scott Conlon works on RTA's fleet consulting team and brings approximately 25 years of fleet industry experience to the discussion. He challenges fleets to consider not only the economics of vehicle utilization but also lifecycle classifications, replacement scoring, organizational culture, and the time and effort required to move assets between users.
Drew Morrow is a Fleet Success Manager at RTA with 15 years of experience leading fleets. Drawing on his background in fleet operations and emergency management, Drew examines vehicle reassignment through the lenses of asset use case, operational requirements, remarketing, and the data fleet leaders need to justify utilization decisions.
Jake Johnson is a Fleet Success Manager at RTA with more than 20 years of experience on the heavy-duty commercial side of the fleet industry. His perspective highlights how utilization strategies can differ dramatically by asset type, including situations where heavy-duty vehicles move from high-mileage applications to lower-mileage duty cycles later in their lives.
Fleet leaders shouldn't have to make lifecycle and utilization decisions in the dark.
RTA Fleet360 helps public fleet leaders bring asset, maintenance, utilization, lifecycle, and cost information together so they can identify fleet blind spots, make better decisions, and confidently stand behind those decisions.
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Learn more about RTA Fleet360 at rtafleet.com or explore RTA Fleet Consulting at fleetconsulting.com.