Having been in business for 100 years, Holman has learned what works and – more importantly – what doesn’t for fleets, says Rory Mackinnon, the company’s commercial director.

Rory Mackinnon, Holman’s commercial director

A family-run business that has been around for 100 years, Holman knows what it takes to succeed. We opened our first Ford dealership in New Jersey in 1924 and have grown to the point where we have two million vehicles under our fleet management. In the UK, we look at the complete model of buy, drive, service, sell. The difference between us and other operations is that we focus on how to give the best return to our customers.

With our approach, finance, lease and individual services allows customers to flex their fleet as they need to and change it as and when the environment dictates. But the sole aim is to ensure that when it comes to the ‘sell’ element of the model, our customers are the ones that retain the equity, not us.

Agility is key

Our 300-strong UK staff all work to protect the assets of our customers and the fleets in our care. That means we don’t earn more if we spend more, but we have to justify every penny of expenditure, which leads to big savings for our customers.

Our ability to add in agility starts with the model. We offer finance lease, with pay-on-use maintenance, which means customers only spend what they use. With finance lease – and because fleets are taking the opportunity to get all the profit back at the end, if circumstances in the market – or their vehicle, change at any time during that period, they are able to get out of it.

Details in the data

As a business we are a data aggregator – and we provide fleets with dashboards and an insight into their vehicles, we identify for our customers peaks or outliers of vehicles and give guidance on the actions to take, affecting their bottom line positively and improving their operation. We’re able to get vehicles back on the road quicker and we understand how preventative maintenance supports a productive fleet operation. Everything hinges around portfolio management, which is where we take all of our data and present it to our customers in a way that gives them the ability to make informed decisions.

Access to this data comes back to the concept of agility and the ability to get out of contracts when your business needs to. We can help fleets when they are looking to transition to EV, for example, and being aware of new vehicles coming online. If they fit the needs of the fleet, we’re able to make the change a seamless key-to-key switch.

Unlock the potential of your fleet

We understand that managing a successful fleet can be complex and time-consuming. New developments in technology, regulation changes, as well as the pressure to keep costs down, can all strain resources and lead to reactive, short-term solutions. Our four steps aim to make things easier: buy (build a fleet that delivers); drive (create a culture of safety); service (keep your vehicles on the road) and sell (avoid supply chain disruption). This approach ensures that fleets are agile, drivers are safe and vehicles are compliant. All at the same time as maximising the returns back to your organisation.