Get it right in Africa

“The biggest mistake made by many corporates has been to treat Africa as one single entity and to adopt a single strategic approach for all African countries. However, any expansion requires the right resources as well as the right infrastructure and assets,” says Murray Price, MD of Eqstra Fleet Management.

With this in mind, the company has established Eqstra Fleet Consulting to assist African fleet operators with the design and implementation of cost-reduction plans and cost-containment strategies.

The new business unit will be based in Namibia and will concentrate on fleets operating outside South Africa. Specific focus areas will include:

• Vehicle selection versus operational conditions;
• Fleet replacement and disposal strategies;
• Funding strategies and best optimal solutions;
• Utilisation analysis and optimisation;
• Performance against competitors (industry-related benchmarking of cost per kilometre (CPK));
• Operational best practices and implementation;
• Information technology and systems including requirement definition;
• Reporting;
• Employee travel management advice.

“Our new business unit will provide companies with sufficient information to assess their travel, logistics and tax requirements from a fleet perspective,” says Price.

“We are currently compiling information, to set industry benchmarks and blueprints, for fleet utilisation that is not yet in place in Africa. We believe this will become a barometer to compare fleet cost and utilisation within various industries,” he concludes.