Football is America’s most popular sport, with 17.5 million fans watching NFL games weekly. And that figure doesn’t consider the many others who watch college, high school, or youth league football. At Mike Albert Fleet Solutions, we love football, too. While cheering on our hometown team, the Cincinnati Bengals, we realized that the sport and fleet management share similarities. Here are eight that came to mind.
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You need a potent offense and defense. Just like football, excellent fleet management demands proper offense and defense. For example, from an offensive standpoint, upfitting vehicles with the right equipment is a proven way to improve performance, as this creates a more efficient, effective, and safer working environment for your drivers. On the defensive side, investing in preventive maintenance is an excellent way to protect against unexpected, costly repairs.
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Data is for winners. Now more than ever, football teams utilize data to enhance player performance, refine game strategies, and mitigate the risk of injuries. Likewise, winning fleets rely heavily on data to enhance safety and maintain vehicles in optimal condition, ensuring they remain on the road. As data can improve a team’s performance, it does the same with fleets, improving overall safety and efficiency while driving down each vehicle’s Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
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Penalties hurt. A thrown flag can ruin a team’s chances of scoring or winning. The equivalent in fleet management is when Department of Transportation (DOT) regulations, registration, and tolling aren’t correctly managed, resulting in costly fines. It’s hard to feel like you’re winning when writing checks to cover mobility penalties that could have been easily avoided.
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Sometimes, you have to punt. Punting is never a football team’s preferred choice, but it’s part of the game. The same forced, unpleasant decisions occur in fleet management as well, such as when supply chain disruptions prevent you from acquiring your preferred vehicle. When teams have to punt, they aim to make it their best. This mentality applies to punting in fleet management: If you can’t have your first choice, you want the second-best choice, all things considered, to make the most of your unwanted situation.
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Safety matters. The NFL has made significant progress regarding concussion prevention and treatment thanks to improved data, equipment, and protocols. Fleet management has also made significant strides in terms of safety. Vehicle features such as rear-view cameras and lane drift warnings have saved countless lives and prevented untold damage. Additionally, telematics data can reveal driver behavior and inform the necessary training to protect your personnel and vehicles.
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Replays come in handy. When referees’ calls are challenged and plays are reviewed via instant replay, the correct call is often obvious. Similarly, analyzing fleet data is, in essence, a way of looking backward to decide how best to move forward. Dash cams are another way to travel back in time and understand how, for instance, an accident occurred so that drivers can avoid future ones.
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Special teams play an essential role. Football teams have their specialists, such as the field goal unit, and fleet management has its specialists as well: the upfitting team, the registration team, and the acquisition team, to name a few. Just as a kickoff or punt returned for a touchdown is a sight to behold, so is the work of our fleet specialists, who make substantial contributions to our clients’ successful fleet management programs daily.
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Going for extra points. Since 1989, kickers have put post-touchdown pigskins through the uprights more than 97% of the time. The success rate for a two-point conversion is about half that. At Mike Albert, we always go for the extra points, doing whatever it takes to serve our customers. This approach may be more challenging, but we believe it’s the right thing to do. What can we say? We like going above and beyond; doing so makes us want to do a little celebratory dance in our end zone (the break room).
Editor’s Note: Not only is fleet management a lot like football, but it’s also a lot like baseball. You can read all about that here.
