Fleet Logistics talks to Senior Product Manager, Patrick Averweg

Senior product manager, Patrick Averweg, has been at Fleet Logistics for more than 13 years, in two separate spells. He is responsible for new product development, working especially with Fleet Logistics’ new mobility solutions as the business transitions from a fleet management to a managed mobility solutions as a service (MMaaS) provider.

1. What have been the key product developments of the last 12-18 months?

For me, the movement away from a pure focus on the management of the company car to one that includes total mobility solutions of all types and a mobility-centric way of thinking has been the major highlight. There has been a total commitment to this approach from the senior team right across the board, to working with new partners and developing new tools and mobility solutions.

We are by no means there yet, but the transition has begun with a new and refreshing approach. We have launched our first new mobility solution, MobilityBUDGET, in Germany, which provides employees with a tax optimised cash amount which can be used to cover personal multi-modal mobility needs, ranging from personal lease, through shared mobility including rental cars to public transport. This provides a clear, transparent and automated process to optimise internal cash allowance processes or simply offer an alternative to meet the employees’ need for alternative mobility.

2. During the last 12-18 months, Fleet Logistics has announced that it would be transitioning become more of a provider of Managed Mobility as a Service. How do you think this new approach has been perceived in terms of its success and its timing?

I think our new approach has been very well received by our customer base and the timing, in terms of the global Coronavirus pandemic, has supported our transition to a MMaaS provider, with more companies working from home and using the company car less as a result.

We are starting to see a change in mindset away from a totally cost-based focus to one where the environment assumes ever greater importance – and where carbon impact is now probably at the same level as cost. As a result, companies are looking at different and varied mobility options, rather than just the car, which have a lower CO2 impact on their operations.

We are currently working on MobilityFIT, a configurator for mobility services which is being trialed by a number of clients. This gives the driver or employee, access to a variety of mobility options, rather like the FleetWIZARD configurator does for company cars.

So, an employee with an 800 Euro budget can select a car for, say, 600 Euros, and different mobility solutions, such as train, car sharing, cash or whatever they like, for the remaining 200 Euros. At the same time, we are working on our MobilityBUDGET solution.

MobilityBUDGET has the ability to be a one-stop shop for all client mobility needs, capable of managing on behalf of employers and employee’s multi-modal means of transport, and we will look to develop, refine and expand it capabilities.

3. How do you see mobility solutions developing over the next three to five years?

Over that time frame, I see us developing and expanding our range of mobility services to meet the ever more sophisticated mobility needs of our customers, and to provide them, with total transparency and ease of use, the mobility services they desire and deserve.

Over the coming years, the environment will assume ever greater importance in business operations. Under the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, which provides global standardized frameworks to measure and manage greenhouse gas emissions from businesses, companies are obliged to report carbon levels from commuting and how they plan to reduce their carbon footprint in the future.

Mobility solutions have the ability to help them achieve these objectives as they allow the employee to right size from the car they are provided to a smaller car with lower emissions, helping cut the corporate carbon footprint.

The development of MMaaS from a standing start has required a huge amount of effort across the business but one which the company has really bought into at all levels. At the same time, we are a service company first and foremost, providing great services to our clients.

And I have had huge respect for colleagues in how they have been able to continue to provide an outstanding level of service to our clients throughout the Coronavirus pandemic, with home working predominating and constraints on everyone’s time and resources.