Staying Ahead of Fuel Misuse and Problems

Imagine receiving a call or email from your Director of Finance, or a County Administrator, and being asked about a fuel issue you have not seen yet; this is the worst nightmare of every fleet manager. There are times when you dread that moment because there is nothing you can say to fix it. When your credibility as a manager is lost, due to being the last to find out about a problem, it never goes away; once you lose it, the next time you are asked a question, and you are unable to answer it, leadership will be wondering if it will happen again.

That loss of trust (even if it is not spoken) will change the entire relationship.

Where the Gap Starts
Most public fleets use systems to capture card swipes, collect transactions and produce reports. While these processes take time, by the time the data reaches your department (in a form you can understand), your Director of Finance may have already identified some discrepancy in the fuel cost from their reporting channels.

As a result, your department is always the last to find out about your own programs. If this happens multiple times, without anyone in your department doing anything wrong, and the reason for each transaction is obvious, a credibility gap is created, and it is nearly impossible to recover from that gap. The gap is not about the transactions themselves; the gap is about who found the information first and what that says about who is really monitoring the program.

Your Finance Department Has Access to All Financial Data Across Departments
They review all departments’ financial data, and they notice differences throughout the departments. Because of the variations in fuel prices and usage, your fleet’s financial activity stands out to your Finance Department.

If your Finance Department is reviewing your fuel activity every week prior to your having the transactional data in-house, then you are structurally behind in every discussion you have about your fleet program.

Why This Matters Beyond the One Moment
One of our key operating principles at Manatee County was our Finance Department should never learn about our fleet program from a report before we can provide context. That isn’t about hiding anything; we had clean data and our fleet program was solid. It is about professionalism and the ability to guide the conversation instead of just reacting to it.

Fleet Managers Who Consistently Guide Those Conversations with Finance and Leadership Are the Ones That Earning Trust Over Time
Fleet managers that consistently lead conversations with finance and leadership regarding their fleet programs are the ones earning trust over time. They are the ones whose budget requests receive a fair hearing. They are the ones that receive calls to participate in strategic conversations, as opposed to just a review of compliance.

More often than not, the difference between those two scenarios is based on data velocity, which means how quickly a fleet manager knows what is going on with their fleet, and how prepared they are to discuss it.

I believe it is important to name the inverse of the previous statement. Fleet managers that consistently react to financial conversations tend to see their credibility diminished, regardless of the quality of their work. Ultimately, it is not the quality of the work that is most important, but rather the perception of control. The perception of control begins with who provides the information first to the table in a financial conversation.

Changing the Conversation Through Shared Visibility
I have seen many different arrangements during my career and in my consulting, but the most effective arrangement I have seen and the one I recommend is a shared visibility arrangement between fleet and finance. In a shared visibility arrangement, both fleet and finance are looking at the same data at the same time, not because finance needs to monitor fleet, but because when everyone is viewing the same information, the conversation shifts from investigating why something occurred to developing plans to address it.

For example, when finance understands that your fleet leadership has already identified a fuel cost increase this week and is actively addressing it, the dynamic of the relationship changes. You are no longer being questioned, you are now being consulted. That type of dynamic is worth much more than the systems investment needed to achieve it. It transforms the fleet manager from being a subject of scrutiny to being a trusted partner in financial stewardship conversations.

A Shared Visibility Arrangement Reduces the Probability of Surprises
A shared visibility arrangement also minimizes the probability of both parties being surprised by variances that neither party expected. Finance does not receive surprise variances that they cannot anticipate. Fleet does not receive surprise questions about transactions that have already been identified by finance as potential issues. Both parties are operating from the same set of facts and therefore the conversation can focus on what actions should be taken versus what happened.

Moving Upstream
If your fleet operation is currently experiencing a situation where finance finds and addresses a fuel-related issue before you do, the solution is not to implement faster exception reporting. It is to move upstream: invest in visibility tools that allow your fleet manager to view transaction data in real-time or near-real-time, so your fleet manager is the most knowledgeable individual in the room when a fuel-related issue arises.

This is a realistic expectation for most public fleet operations. It does not require significant changes in the technology used within your fleet. It requires an honest assessment of where the data delay exists, what system changes are necessary to eliminate the delay and what is the business justification for making the investment. More often than not, the business justification for making the investment is clearly articulated once the credibility costs associated with the current method of managing your fleet’s data are accurately recognized.

The Best Fleets Operate This Way
Many of the top performing fleets I have reviewed through the 100 Best Fleets program operate in this manner. They do not wait until a fuel-related issue surfaces through an outside source. They identify it first, proactively address the issue and enter every conversation with finance and leadership from a place of confidence, not from a place of explanation.

This type of posture is available to every fleet organization that chooses to invest in the systems necessary to provide it.