Fleets of all sizes are being advised to consider ‘life beyond lockdown’, preparing for a return to regular operations once the pandemic subsides…
Life After Lockdown
Epyx, a software developer for the automotive industry, is urging fleets to prepare for ‘life after lockdown’. In particular, it believes they should consider how they’ll return to their normal operations once restrictions are removed. It believes fleets should specifically consider the safety of vehicles that have only been infrequently used over the last year.
Debbie Fox, commercial director at the company, believes that the pandemic will subside sometime between the spring and summer. She said, “expert views on the speed with which vaccination can be carried out and the rapidity with which it will impact on infection rates seem to differ widely. But it seems likely that we will see a marked effect beginning some point between the spring and summer”. She added, “fleets should consider how they will approach this moment as over the last nine months. Very few have been operating in anything like a normal manner. But we could finally begin to see a return to face-to-face meetings, for example. The new lockdown makes this possibility seem quite distant but change could happen relatively quickly”.
Despite the new work-from home trend, Fox also says a lot of Epyx’s fleet customers want to return to real-world meeting arrangements. She explained, “they desire the human aspect of the relationship they have with us. Video-conferencing has proven to be a really useful substitute, but it will not replace all meetings in the future”.
Fleet Industry Is Prepared
According to the Association of Fleet Professionals (AFP), British fleets are now in far better position to handle the challenges of lockdown restrictions than they were at the start of the pandemic.
Paul Hollick, the AFP Chair, noted that the industry was fatigued by the restrictions; but that it’d ultimately rise to the challenge. He said, “fleet managers are now experienced in this area and almost have a ‘lockdown mode’ into which they shift, where they move to meet a different set of priorities and needs from when looser restrictions are in place”. He concluded, “the situation is completely different from last spring; when we were faced with a long list of unknowns and had to improvise our way through an unprecedented situation. This week, we once again are finding ourselves in an emergency but it’s now a familiar one; and fleets know what needs to be done”.
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