{"id":6731,"date":"2020-07-23T13:17:43","date_gmt":"2020-07-23T11:17:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/?p=6731"},"modified":"2020-07-23T13:17:43","modified_gmt":"2020-07-23T11:17:43","slug":"fleets-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/2020\/07\/23\/fleets-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"One Fleet’s Pandemic Strategies and Robust Safety Program"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before the pandemic, an average job for Essential Utilities would consist of two trucks that would travel with a team of four. This has changed to just one person per vehicle. Photo: Essential Utilities<\/p>\n

Essential Utilities, a water and gas utility company based in Pennsylvania, has made major strides in improving its fleet safety program. Founded on maintaining a keen focus on monitoring driver behavior and strong industry partnerships, it has continued to persevere through the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Charlie Stevenson, CAFM, serves as the vice president of fleet operations for Essential Utilities, which has business in Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, Illinois, Texas, New Jersey, Indiana, Virginia,\u00a0West Virginia, and Kentucky.<\/p>\n

He oversees a fleet of about 2,300 vehicles, with 1,110 at the water utility and 1,200 for the gas utility.<\/p>\n

Essential Utilities has maintained a robust and thorough safety and accident management program that was set in place in 2008. That program had to make way for changes to support its fleet during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

How Fleet Changed During COVID-19<\/strong><\/h5>\n

One of the biggest safety adjustments that fleets around the world have had to make this year are those that look to curb COVID-19.<\/p>\n

Fleet safety considerations made to the coronavirus pandemic that Stevenson has addressed included how its fleet, operating for both the water utility and gas utility sides of the business, had to reduce the number of drivers in a vehicle for jobs being performed.<\/p>\n

Previously, an average job would consist of two trucks that would travel with a team of four. This has changed to just one person since the coronavirus was declared a pandemic in March 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery person is single in a truck today, because of COVID-19 we can\u2019t have two people in a truck until we get through this social distance side of things,\u201d Stevenson said. \u201cThis made us put some trucks back in service that we were going to retire, and we held on to trucks that were going to auction. We were nervous earlier on during the pandemic, because we thought we were going to need more vehicles than we did.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also noted that the fleet allowed some employees to drive their own vehicles during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

New Sanitation Protocols<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The impacts of COVID-19 have also led to extensive cleaning protocols that are performed by drivers and maintenance technicians.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur pool vehicles that go out have Clorox bleach wipes, so when somebody gets in a vehicle, they clean the car really well, reaching all the touch points. And when our mechanics handle a vehicle, they clean the door panels and clean everything on the vehicle prior to it being serviced,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Charlie
Charlie Stevenson<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The pandemic has also impacted the utility companies\u2019 in-house maintenance shops.<\/p>\n

Stevenson said the shops have an area designated for parts delivery sectioned off from the rest of the shop. Interaction between those delivering the parts was eliminated, including any form of signatures that would have previously been used.<\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n

Establishing a Robust Safety and Accident Program<\/strong><\/h5>\n

But the good habits being incorporated into operations are led from the foundations of a robust safety and accident management program.<\/p>\n

The fleet\u2019s current program was implemented 12 years ago, when Stevenson identified the fleet needed to have a more robust safety program that could match the growing pace of the company and its fleet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were growing fast, so we were looking for accident policies we could adopt,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Stevenson had been speaking with some industry peers for several years until around 2008 in which the utility company had decided Corporate Claims Management (CCM) would best serve the needs of the Essential Utilities fleet and its drivers, which at the time was operating under the name Aqua America and strictly operated as a water utility.<\/p>\n

Establishing Key Fleet Safety Relationships<\/strong><\/h5>\n

With CCM\u2019s help, the fleet was able to strengthen its safety program for accident prevention.<\/p>\n

The program was based on the foundation of a scorecard point system that measures several things that includes reviewing driver accident history, analyzing complaints from the made through a public 1-800 number, and regular MVR monitoring.<\/p>\n

The elements to this program have helped provide Essential Utilities with the tools needed to curb risky driving behavior, which has improved since its implementation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe reduced our at-fault accidents over the past three years with CCM services,\u201d said Stevenson. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen a downward trend in accidents.\u201d<\/p>\n

CCM has also been a strong supporter for the accident management side of the business, assisting with subrogation, vehicle salvaging (that comes along with a robust repair shop network), and additional accident management safety training services.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve been a good partner helping us with subrogation, on reporting any losses, reporting any unsafe drivers to our report card system dashboard that is offered,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cThey fix all our vehicles from the accident management side of the business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stevenson added that, due to the smaller size of his fleet team, the assistance CCM has provided in the areas of safety have helped tremendously.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur program is labor intensive; before we partnered with them, we were probably getting 200 driver complaints a year,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we have a small staff \u00a0that work in fleet of over a 1,000 vehicles.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

by Andy Lundin<\/a><\/p>\n

Source: https:\/\/www.automotive-fleet.com<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

CUT COTS OF THE FLEET WITH OUR AUDIT PROGRAM<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The audit is a key tool to know the overall status and provide the analysis, the assessment, the advice, the suggestions and the actions to take in order to cut costs and increase the efficiency and efficacy of the fleet. We propose the following fleet management audit.<\/p>\n

FLEET MANAGEMENT AUDIT<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before the pandemic, an average job for Essential Utilities would consist of two trucks that would travel with a team of four. This has changed to just one person per vehicle. Photo: Essential Utilities Essential Utilities, a water and gas utility company based in Pennsylvania, has made major strides in improving its fleet safety program….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[302],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6731"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6731"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6733,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6731\/revisions\/6733"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}