The exponential rise of internet shopping means the delivery industry is big business in the United Kingdom, and recently passed £10 billion in annual turnover, reveals The new rules of fleet management, released by IN-SYNC Group in January 2019.
Indeed, there were 3.2 billion parcels and packages shipped in the UK in 2017 – a year-on-year increase of 8 per cent – according to the Pitney Bowes Parcel Shipping Index 2017, with the B2C market making up 42 per cent. However, due to uncertainty over Brexit, and a dearth of drivers, there may be bumps in the road ahead for fleet managers who don’t revamp their operations models.
With the volume of parcels forecast to grow by 20 per cent every year to 2021, IN-SYNC Group’s essential guide explains how fleet managers can “simplify driver engagement and boost your retention”. Furthermore, the Farnham-headquartered organisation offers a unique, end-to-end solution – for drivers and fleet managers – to take advantage of trends and speed ahead of rivals.
The guide outlines the “new rules for engagement that you should adopt for your fleet”, and continues: “It’s about keeping capacity flexible and matching resources to every rise and fall in demand … without expensive vehicles rusting on your forecourt. It’s about cost control and eliminating depreciation risks off your balance sheet by outsourcing and offsetting instead.”
IN-SYNC Group provides a new service that empowers drivers, allowing them to become owners of vehicles, and VAT-registered businesses, while dealing with all the hassle of accountancy, compliance and so on. This way the individual can concentrate on driving and, considering that top drivers can manage 80 deliveries a day, earning more money.
Find out how to meet demand without increasing your fleet management costs. guides.insyncgroup.co.uk/
Fleet managers are urged to partner with IN-SYNC Group and encourage their drivers to utilise this innovative service. It will significantly reduce their operating costs while also cutting their administration workload – IN-SYNC Group deals with HMRC, credit checks, and registrations – and affording greater flexibility to cope with the fluctuating demands of the delivery market.
“We work with numerous logistics and transport companies, with fleet sizes ranging from tens to hundreds of vehicles, and the main issue is the operating costs,” explains Greg Kitchen, Managing Director at IN-SYNC Credit Services, part of the IN-SYNC Group. “Storing vans, dealing with the upkeep, and insurance, et cetera, is a vast expense, so to be able to create owner-drivers, especially with the rise of the gig economy, is a game-changing solution.
“If the drivers are financially liable for the vehicles they tend to look after them better, and at IN-SYNC Group we can help the individuals not only establish their businesses but hand them the keys to new vans at a much cheaper cost.
“As owner-drivers, they have the freedom to work as much as possible, and as we enter the festive season this is an important point. The alternative is hiring a van from their fleet manager – £150 to £200 a week – and having the rental hire deduced from their earnings, plus being limited as to when they are working.”
Mr Kitchen adds: “IN-SYNC Group is designed to support both individual drivers and fleet managers. We can partner with drivers and organisations and make all their lives easier, with tailor-made business solutions that they cannot find elsewhere on the market.”
It is a “win-win”, as The new rules of fleet management concludes. “You can empower couriers to deliver a better service for your business by delivering a better business for them. When the best option for the drivers is also the best option for you, you can achieve lower fleet costs while achieving greater operational growth.”
Find out how IN-SYNC Group can help you and explore The new rules of fleet management guide here guides.in-syncgroup.com/raconteur
Three unique selling points: a win-win-win scenario for fleet managers, drivers, and IN-SYNC
By Malcolm Oliver, senior partner, IN-SYNC Group
As the delivery industry becomes increasingly competitive, IN-SYNC Group now offers not one, not two, but three unique selling points. There is the USP for using us, a USP for drivers, and a USP for fleet managers or operations directors.
At IN-SYNC Group, we have a unique opportunity to provide an end-to-end business startup proposition for the driver. We will engage drivers with VAT registration and recovery – as well as other taxes, and deal with all of his business-related payments, communicating directly with HMRC and sorting out all his accountancy.
After the driver has gone through credit approval and the underwriting process – which uses artificial intelligence that we have developed and carefully trained over the past 12 months – we point him towards our credit services division and source a van, using one of our national suppliers.
It’s important to stress that as well as established individuals we can also support those who struggle to get credit, as we understand how hard it can be to establish themselves – especially for those coming from overseas – and right now we have a 60-40 split between overseas nationals and British nationals.
We transform individuals into business owners and empower them very quickly – within four weeks they can get their hands on a new van – by handing them the tools to deliver their services, and at IN-SYNC we deal with all of it.
The kudos of having your own business cannot be underestimated. It is such a self-esteem boost, and if a driver owns a van he is likely to take much better care of it, plus they will not have any employability issues because they own their own vehicle and are correctly self-employed.
There is a huge, unstoppable trend towards the gig economy, and drivers with their own vehicles have the freedom to engage with multiple clients. Additionally, owner-drivers depending on their vehicle size have been shown to increase their earnings by up to £300 a week.
At the moment, it costs approximately £35 to hire a mid-size van per day, so for a six-day working week that is £210 deducted from their wages. Now, if a driver were to swap that hired van for a new one, obtained through an IN-SYNC Group finance agreement, it would typically cost £15,000. That package includes unlimited mileage warranty breakdown cover, optional AA breakdown cover, two services, and Gap insurance – this product protects the driver from an insurance payout shortfall, typically in the event of their vehicle being written off or stolen.
Find out how to meet demand without increasing your fleet management costs. guides.insyncgroup.co.uk/
Many IN-SYNC drivers save up to 50 per cent of the vehicle capital cost over a typical 18 month period making our vehicle proposition probably the strongest business opportunity in the logistics market.
Running a fleet can be a big headache, having to deal with all the drivers’ administration, on top of worrying about the maintenance of the vehicles. For a fleet manager, who is looking to cut his overhead costs, all he has to do is introduce IN-SYNC Group to his existing drivers who don’t have vans. We can do the legwork, transform – and drastically improve – the operations model, simplify driver engagement and boost retention.
Through the fleet manager introducing the drivers to us, we then take away the worries about noncompliance and all the admin hassle, as we look after the drivers from thereon. All of a sudden, he has an entirely different, easier-to-manage strategy, and one that offers greater flexibility for both him and the driver. An owner-driver fleet requires considerably less attention; the manager doesn’t have to concern himself with servicing the vehicles, damage, insurance, and so on.
The cost savings for the fleet manager and his organisation are considerable. It will also create an enormous reduction in future liabilities.
If you use owner-drivers, you can retain their loyalty by paying them a little more money – money that has been saved through not having to shell out on insurance, maintenance, et cetera.
IN-SYNC Group has developed this seamless group proposition over the past 18 months and we believe it truly is a triple win. We are experiencing a surge in demand from a build in momentum primarily because of the demise of the high street and the rise of home deliveries and the realisation by fleet managers and drivers that there is a competitive alternative to the normal high street commercial loan. With Brexit nearing into view, now is the perfect time for drivers and fleet managers to contact us to learn how IN-SYNC Group can upgrade operations models in this time of great transformation.
