Human resources: your role in fleet

Human resources, or HR, can often have quite a significant role in fleet management. Understand more about that here.

Human resources is by no means a one-size-fits-all profession and can vary drastically depending on the industry and type of company in which it operates. Similar to fleet management, human resources often takes on a wide variety of roles, and when you combine the two there’s a good chance the line between HR and Fleet Management can get a bit blurred. So who plays what role?

We spoke to Jacqui Parkin (General Manager Human Capital), and she gave us a bit of insight into how HR operates within a fleet management environment. According to Jacqui, the best way to distinguish what falls under HR, is to run it through the ‘personal and responsibility’ test. In other words, anything that falls within the sphere of personal information or holding persons responsible for their actions (or lack thereof) will fall under HR.

“Just like most other companies, HR is responsible for recruitment at EQSTRA, because that’s where it all starts. We will do all the background checks, confirm references, and make sure applicants have a clear driving record, as this is obviously very important in our industry”, says Jacqui.

Because fleet is such a dynamic industry, HR specialists operating in this field need to stay up-to-date with all internal fleet policies, any changes in labour law, amendments to tax regulations, and even general road laws as fleet is the core business. Many things that might ‘sound’ like general fleet admin, will actually fall under HR, as it has a direct impact on employees

According to Jacqui, the below are some examples of fleet admin where HR needs to be involved:

• Allocating vehicles to employees based on their job role
• Ensuring all relevant paperwork is filled in by the employee
• Liaising with finance to ensure the correct tax is deducted from salaries depending on the car allocated
• Process any speeding fines and deduct from salaries
• If applicable, make sure employees are held accountable for payment of insurance excess

“Due to the nature of our industry, and the risks and responsibilities that come with driving a company car, managing fleet HR often deals with AOD’s (Acknowledgement of Debt), and ensuring staff are held accountable within the framework of internal policies as well as local labour law”, says Jacqui.

“Due to the nature of our industry, and the risks and responsibilities that come with driving a company car, managing fleet HR often deals with AOD’s (Acknowledgement of Debt), and ensuring staff are held accountable within the framework of internal policies as well as local labour law”, says Jacqui.

As it’s a fleet management company by nature, EQSTRA Fleet Management has a very structured approach to where HR fits into the company, and how the different departments work with one another. HR works closely with their finance department, fleet admin department and document processing departments to ensure all HR aspects are tracked and implemented correctly.

“However”, says Jacqui, “smaller companies will often have one person who manages all admin aspects from vehicle registration, to staff allocation and redirecting of speeding fines. It depends on the size of the fleet, but this does open up a lot of room for error, which is why professional fleet management companies such as EQSTRA separates many of these functions.”

Fleet management and human resources are both admin-intensive professions, so running HR within a fleet management company requires strict policies and clear distinction between who is responsible for which duties. According to Jacqui, “The only way to ensure things run smoothly is to track every part of the fleet management and HR process, especially where the two overlap. At EQSTRA we have many years of experience to draw on and we’ve implemented some innovative methods to ensure nothing falls through the cracks.”

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