Driving Innovation in Fleet Management (Susan Miller)

In this episode of the Mile Marker podcast, fleet veteran and luminary, Susan Miller joins to reflect on the rapid evolution of the industry and her roles within it. With over 36 years in fleet management, including 29 years at McDonald's and more than seven at Geotab, Susan's journey is nothing short of remarkable. Now an independent consultant, Susan helps fleet-based businesses across various industries implement strategic solutions, generate cost savings, and improve business practices.

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Transcript

Speaker 2 (00:07):

Welcome everyone to another episode of the Mile Marker podcast. My name is Angela Samos and I am here with my co-host, Mark Thomas. How are you, mark?

Speaker 1 (00:15):

Great to be here. Thanks.

Speaker 2 (00:17):

Good, good. Today's guest is Susan Miller, an experienced fleet industry veteran with a record of achievement and expertise in program management and vendor relationships. Most recently, she spent just over seven years at Geotab and before that 29 years at McDonald's managing their fleet operations. Wow. Susan is a leader with proven success in identifying and implementing strategic fleet solutions, generating significant cost savings at the local, national and global levels, as well as improved business practices, and now an independent consultant helping fleet based businesses across multiple industries. Welcome, Sue.

Speaker 1 (00:57):

Thank you very much. Thanks To be here.

Speaker 2 (00:59):

Wow. 29 years of McDonald's. I really can't even imagine the kind of change that you must have seen over those 29 years just from the types of vehicles to how businesses managed. I mean, that just must have been such an experience.

Speaker 1 (01:15):

Definitely, especially when you really reflect on it. I mean, the computers really took over outside of mainframes. You got more independent with your individual laptops and the advancement of the internet and the availability of it. You talk about changing business models, that changed a lot of things for a lot of people. So yeah, was an exciting career and it continues to be

Speaker 2 (01:41):

Very, very cool. Well give our listeners a little bit of your background. How did you get into Fleet and then through your career at McDonald's and in Geotab and now as a consultant?

Speaker 1 (01:54):

Well, I got into Fleet actually quite by accident, as most people do. Most fleet managers do. I was actually assistant to the treasurer of ServiceMaster Industries back in the late seventies, and part of that job was taking care of some of the financial aspects of the company cars that they had, and I just kind of morphed from there. I presented a business case. I found out there was a whole industry tied behind what that was. I found out about National Association of Fleet Administrators and Automotive Fleet and Leasing Association, and thankfully found some very good mentors that really just helped me develop and grow beyond ServiceMaster into Keebler, and then my long-term career with McDonald's, of which I'm proud of all of it, but I'm most proud of that because that was quite an accomplishment. And then of course, Geotab moving right into a whole new world of technology and the way things are managed and just getting exposed to, we talk about how things have evolved. I mean, even in those seven years, well, it would've been eight this April, how even Geotab has grown and exploded with telematics and the use of technology. It's phenomenal.

Speaker 2 (03:06):

And so in our previous conversation we talked about the more things change, the more they stay the same. And to your point about technology, that always seems so strange that certain things just don't change even with technological innovations and advancements. So now that you're a consultant and you've seen both sides, right? You were in-house managing a fleet, and you went to Geotab and helped lots of fleets. And now as a consultant, what have you observed as far as how businesses are approaching the future? Because things keep changing, right?

Speaker 1 (03:45):

They do keep changing external factors. Yes, you can continuously count on that. I would say the thing that I have has really sunk in with me is something that my father told me a long, long time ago when I was so eager to leave my hometown. He's said to me, faces and names are going to change, but human nature will not. So if you're planning on leaving here to find something different somewhere else, you will find something different. But just keep that in mind. And I think that amongst a few other things he shared with me was a very huge piece of wisdom because even with all of the advances that we have today, you still have those hills to climb, those hurdles to cross trying to convince the C-suite or even just your other immediate leadership or other teams within the organization of the importance of fleet and the importance of some of the things that should be done within that fleet.

Speaker 2 (04:42):

And one of those things that we have another thing that we've been talking about for years. So again, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Is digital transformation. How many years have we been talking about digital transformation? And it's still kind of an ongoing thing where, oh, we've digitized our paperwork, so we have digitally transformed, well, not quite. Yes, you're on the path maybe, right? So what are you seeing here when it comes to transformation, digital transformation, convincing the C, that whole thing, and I guess really giving people the tools that they need. How has that evolving? Because there always seems to be kind of a fight. The people working in the trenches are screaming for better tools and the ones at the top are just really concerned with cutting costs and doing more with less. So what are you seeing there

Speaker 1 (05:43):

That's pretty amazing? Well, what I have seen is I am part of a group of fleet managers that still get together. It started back when covid hit so we could all stay connected. And it's been ongoing since then. And we've brought new members in. I mean, so you've got quite the range of veterans to new people coming in. And the new folks coming in are still hearing the same things that I heard even back in the eighties. To your point, you've got a zero base budget, but I also want you to take out five to 10% or more. And it's the same message. And it's frustrating because fleet is impacted by so many volatile things that are out of their control economically, politically, just the price of gas right there alone. And then also just now how you integrate electric vehicles into the system and waiting for the chicken or the egg to come first in terms of how you can run a fleet effectively and efficiently with charging stations, that may not be where you need them to be. But as far as the digital transformation, I think people better buckle up if they haven't already because if they thought things were changing fast before, it's going to get even faster. It's not going to slow down. It's not going to wait for people. They're going to have to change their business models or else they're going to get left behind.

Speaker 2 (07:13):

So literally either get on the bandwagon or you may not be in business for in the next few years kind of thing.

Speaker 1 (07:22):

Just think of recently, I've seen some things in the news about, I know they're not a fleet company, but look at how they've had to regroup, take a step back and go, you know what? I'm not the anchor in the mall anymore. Which, okay, what's even a mall anymore? They have to redesign themselves. They have to rethink how they're going to continue to be an effective retailer moving forward. I think a lot of, well, I don't even think it's just clear that the way that we do business has changed dramatically. There's so many more things being available to us as far as just think of delivery systems, Amazon being able to just have your different local stores deliver to you, food delivery, all of these things have changed, and they're using the technology to find the best designed vehicles to make certain that the vehicles are kept at a right temperature to make sure that they're routed efficiently, that they've got all of their long haul or their short haul, the last mile deliveries as tight as they can possibly be. Because that's another thing that will not change is fleet is a penny business. You're still driving miles or kilometers every half of a cent or cent you can shave off of those miles adds up significantly. I mean, at one point the McDonald's fleet was doing about 77 million miles a year. You take a penny off of that. That's a lot of change.

(08:56):

And yeah, I kind of lost my train of thought there. It just still overwhelms me when you think about that kind of stuff. Although that gets me juiced up. That's where my brain starts going faster than my mouth.

Speaker 2 (09:08):

Well, and do you think the c-suite is finally understanding that, okay, fine. I know you're telling everyone that they need to shave 5% off their budget. However, to do that, they need to invest in technology, whether it's for automation, whether it's for implementing AI to make better business decisions or all these kinds of things. Do you think that's finally sinking in at the higher levels and are they willing to make those investments now, do you think?

Speaker 1 (09:40):

I think that it is sinking in, yes. It's kind of like the Macy's example. They can't ignore it any longer. I also feel that there is a new generation of leadership that's coming up and there's a changing of the guard, so to speak. And with that comes a change of thought and a new energy, some different perspectives. It's a much more global transparent business world than it has ever been. And I think that a lot of those best practice sharings are taking place. So I really feel that there is a very positive momentum in that direction. I think that there's still a significant room for change and upgrading, if you will, of thought and process towards that. And I really hope that what I really hope that what a lot of leadership gets back to is the importance still of the people, but that the investment in the technology is going to help the people develop better behaviors, develop the culture within their company of safety that they want. Because really, if you've got a very safe operating fleet and you've got well-trained employees and drivers of the vehicles that you have to manage, all of that's going to trickle into your best bottom line ever shaving off all those pennies. But you do have to invest in those things and invest in the people to make them feel valued. Knowledge is power.

Speaker 3 (11:05):

Where do you recommend they start?

Speaker 1 (11:12):

Very basically right at the very base level. I would say that, and this is going to be the tough one because everybody takes driving for granted, right? I mean, unless you're a professional over the road class eight truck driver, I mean those people, those men and women, they understand the power of what they're wielding with those huge vehicles that they have to drive. But I feel that people of, they just think they're just a delivery person or they're driving their car, they're just on sales calls. You just think you're still 16 years old and you just take these things for granted. And teaching people and getting them back into good habits, giving them information to show them why those habits are so important, why they should invest in themselves so that their company will do better and they'll do better in their jobs. I think that's where your most basic training comes in, and that's in understanding basic physics, the missile that I've got in my hands.

Speaker 3 (12:13):

Now. How about the systems that are sort of augmenting the training, so the Inca and monitoring the driver evaluation scores. So do you think that technology can accelerate either their learning or their adoption of these practices?

Speaker 1 (12:31):

I think both, but I think the strongest part of the adoption is going to be that still that person to person approach is still going to be the psychology of how you convince someone that this is going to be good for them. The what's in it for me and why is this so important? And also no one really likes to be told what to do, at least no one that I've ever come across. And it seems the older we get, the worse that kind of becomes. But I think it's really going to boil down to people understanding how to use the human psyche, and I'm not saying manipulate it or anything like that. There's just so much out there that we know now that we didn't before as far as how adults learn, how people accept information and knowledge and how they can take it and apply it. I really feel that there's going to be, I don't even want to call it human resources because they're there really to protect the company. I think it has to be a separate training group within the organization that really focuses on the psyche and wellbeing of the, oops, I'm sorry about that. I thought I had that turned off of the employees. And that's going to really affect how that culture allows or how people accept that in their culture to absorb that information and apply it.

Speaker 2 (13:56):

And so you're really talking about the human factor, right, of fleet. And right now it's whether that's the drivers, but then also the fleet manager level because they're managing a lot so they can be stressed out. How do you train them? Is it a new system? That sort of thing. And you mentioned a nude generation of worker coming in and I mean, I can't even imagine if you tried to hire a Gen Z and you said, so you're going to fill out this spreadsheet every day and they're going to say, excuse me, what? I don't think this job is for me, right? Yeah. So you have that. And so there's this whole human factor that I feel like may sound like an old fashioned thing to some people given, oh, we have AI to do this and we have all this fancy technology, but really you still need humans at the end of the day to execute and to run things. So in your conversations with people, how are you finding that they are, I guess, marrying those two together and finding that balance between and bringing back a more nurturing, I guess, attention to training and human factor coupled with AI technology or automation technology where people may feel like, well, you're just going to automate everything. You don't need me anyway. That's not true because their job's just going to change a little bit. So how have those conversations been going with people that you've found?

Speaker 1 (15:37):

They go well, but I don't want to call it like a bit of a bitch session, but I mean people do need to vent. Yeah,

Speaker 2 (15:46):

For

Speaker 1 (15:46):

Sure. It's a very difficult thing to manage. It always has been. But I would say with the use of technology and ai, it's gotten even farther away because to your point, people think, well, we can do all of these things we the technology, which is extremely true, but you still have to have the people there to not only set up your algorithms, set up the way that you want your system to work, but then you still have to filter that down to people that are still executing the job. And as long as there are non-autonomous vehicles on the road, you still have that human being with their foot on a gas pedal and a brake and their hands on a steering wheel.

(16:32):

That's where you've got to still pay attention to. I really feel that we've lost too much sight of that. And you need to bring everyone into that equation. And I know that we are mainly talking about fleet managers and company car fleets, and it's a lot for a fleet manager to go, well, hey, I'm just a fleet manager. They want me to manage the gas. I got the license title, I got the resale, I got the maintenance, I got the crash management. I've got risk and safety, and now you're telling me I'm supposed to take care of these people.

(17:06):

Don't live on an island. You can't take care of everyone. You just can't. But you can bring in people onto the team, right? You've got to increase your relationships with your risk management, your safety groups. If you have fortunate enough to have the size of a corporation and company that has a specific training department, get in touch with them. Or if they don't have one work within your HR team or whatever leadership development there is to try to get that, not just for upper management, but get it for everybody and specifically your drivers. And I think coming back to the whole point of safety, the more that you're able to show drivers the impact of poor behavior and reward their good behavior, they're going to really understand the whole equation and giving them that knowledge, giving them that power and asking them for their feedback on it and getting their buy-in into it will, it can make huge changes

Speaker 2 (18:12):

In your fleet manager group that you have or that kind of developed since covid. I'm curious, you mentioned all the different things that a fleet manager has to deal with risk and schedules and all the different aspects and that they still have to take care of people. So what kinds of tools are people asking for? Is it a, listen, if I had a tool that would just automate all this other stuff, then I could be more of a manager and focus on my people, or is it something else? I'm curious in that group in particular, what are people asking for or what do they think would be helpful? What are they wanting in their world?

Speaker 1 (19:05):

And that's going to vary by company and by individual, right? But I would say overall the use of telematics, if they could get that implemented into their fleet, if it's not already, because that data is so valuable. I mean, there's just so much there. Geotab certainly has an excellent way of highlighting that in the way that they use ai. And they've got a lot of very smart, brilliant people that work very hard at this, and they do a great job. But there's also the fleet management companies that have their internal people too, that know how to take the data that's collected from telematics, and they do amazing things with it because they've got all of it. I mean, especially if you've been under a full service with them, they've got all your mileage, all your maintenance, all your crash statistics. They've got the gamut. You typically have fuel purchasing programs with them. So it's really dependent upon the type, the size of the fleet and the company that these fleet managers work for. But I do know the one thing that is, and I'm bringing it up again, it's the safety aspect

Speaker 2 (20:16):

Really. So it really keeps coming back.

Speaker 1 (20:19):

That's what keeps people up at night for the most part. Yes, because almost, especially in this group that I've got, because of some of the seasoned veterans that you've got in there in terms of managing fleets, we've had horrible crashes. We've had to deal with loss of life, whether it was within our own drivers or with someone else, and just to see what the horror that some of these collisions can cause is horrible. And there are lots of information out there for people to see. If anything, I think people have gotten overs sensitized to it and they think it's not going to happen to me. Well, it's not a matter of if it's a matter of when, not when. So I would say that for the most part, the fleet managers would love to be able to have a very clean system of having things in the vehicle and the cab that will eliminate the distractions, be able to monitor those on an exception basis. I mean, I think that's a big thing that a lot of drivers have is I don't want a camera in my vehicle because I don't want people looking at me. It's like, you got to get over that. They're not there to spy on you. That's just a recording of a clip in the space of time if they're hopefully. But like I said, it's not a matter of if there's a crash, and in most cases, those cameras exonerate the driver.

Speaker 3 (21:43):

What's interesting is you're talking about how essentially new layers of technology can come in to help solve these individual point projects. The cabin monitoring can not only provide feedback to the driver, but also provide assistance so that if there has been an accident, you can automatically dispatch an ambulance or a tow truck if it was more minor. But as you add systems, you're adding work to those poor fleet managers who aren't getting additional people to monitor these systems. And so what we've found is we're seeing that customers are now starting to get system overload. They're getting more recommendations, and they know what to do.

(22:32):

And the dialogue around digital transformation for their jobs has started to change. When we talked about automating part of their work, the initial pushback was, well, you can't automate what I do. I'm very skilled and talented. But when you then start to talk to them about, well, how would you like a digital worker that would do all of your grunt work? They're like, this is great. I don't have to actually, for these things that are just mundane, low tire pressure, watch your fluid, even organizing safe light to come out and repair it, chipped or cracked windshield, those are things that can just be the mundane, the boring, the repeatable parts of their job that have a finite response to that, and nobody actually needs to orchestrate the work. The systems can take care of doing the boring work themselves. And so that's when you start to realize that adding, adding technology doesn't mean adding more work, switching to the predictive maintenance system so that you're now monitoring individual vehicles, not scheduled maintenance. All these things just are complicating people's lives, even though each one independently claims to do something better.

Speaker 1 (23:56):

Yes, and it's really, I think to your point, like you said, understanding how it's going to help you. It's going to be your digital assistant, and it may by the use of these things, hopefully even reduce the amount of exceptions that you look at on a daily basis. I mean, even with some of the distracted driving systems that you can put into vehicles that help monitor the use or discourage or eliminate the use of your cell phone for certain things, again, that helps within the event of a collision or a crash, because those records are going to be subpoenaed and it'll be able to demonstrate that they weren't on their phone. So there's going to be that curve, right? It's got to be that learning curve, that acceptance, and then the adaptation, and then things are just going to get easier and level out and better, but you can't take the human element out of it, that's for sure.

Speaker 2 (24:53):

So to that point, we're three months into 2024. I know it's kind crazy, right? Already. Do you see that curve kind of lasting the rest of the year and then I don't know, when do you feel like some real change in adoption of these systems will happen? Are we looking at in the next year or it's going to take two or three years for it to really, and of course there's always the early adopters, and then you have the laggards. So it's always kind of amazing to me that you have people that are still using physical spreadsheets to track some things, but for the most part, do you see the industry kind of moving fast on this or not so much?

Speaker 1 (25:40):

I wish I had a crystal ball. I know,

(25:44):

And I hate to say just based on my gut and my feelings, but those are built off of observations and conversations I've had. I really feel 2024 is going to be a very transformative year on a lot of levels. There's just so much now that has been building and building, and I'll even just use the electric cars as an example. Sure. There was such a push, such a hard wave for that, and people are now seeing where they can adopt and where they can't. So there's a new acceptance of how we're going to blend to this technology in with other fuel usages, other energy sources, not just petrol, but there might be natural gas still or some other

Speaker 2 (26:24):

Hydrogen

Speaker 1 (26:25):

Hydrogens coming up. Yeah, I really feel like we're on the springboard year and it's just going to go up from here, and that's where I come back to fasten your seatbelt or get a race car driving type seatbelt. I think it's tremendously exciting. I think there's a lot to look forward to. It's really going to be highly dependent on how open people are to accepting these changes and getting excited about them and not being closed-minded and thinking, well, we tried that before and it didn't work. Try it again. The planets have shifted or something. There's new people, whatever

Speaker 2 (27:06):

Systems are different. Technology is a little more advanced. Yes. Yeah,

Speaker 1 (27:09):

Exactly. Don't let those kinds of things be a roadblock.

Speaker 2 (27:14):

Right. Speaking of being open to things, one thing that we didn't touch on yet, but maybe we could do briefly here, is being open to new revenue opportunities or new business models as things change. Have you seen anything there, any talk about that in your circles?

Speaker 1 (27:37):

I know that at one point we had talked about Ford and Uber working together, and that's at a manufacturer level. I think the manufacturers have definitely had to change their business model, and we've seen it clearly. I mean, they've even changed the daily rental business, the way that they all work and operate together. So there's definitely going to be a continuation of that. I'll be very curious to see what else the manufacturers decide to do. But as far as individual companies and fleets, I can't say that I can speak to anything that's happened already. But yes, we're going to continue to see that, and it's going to change the way products are delivered and the way fleets are run. And I think things will become a lot more regionalized and not so meaning just within North America, they're going to look to maybe shrink some of their footprints so that they're not trying to get things from east to west, so to speak. I really feel that the political climate and the things that we're seeing in the Middle East as well are going to impact a lot of the way we get goods and services between continents. There's just so much out there that I may not even be that qualified to speak to, but I do observe it, and I think that these are all going to have impacts on how we continue to do business in the United States and in North America and globally.

Speaker 2 (29:02):

Yeah, and I think you kind of said it there, where just being aware of it and sort of being ready so you're not sort of blindsided by any sort of major changes that happen, I think is really important at a bare minimum. Right. Well, I think that kind of, oh, sorry. Didn't mean to, oh, I

Speaker 1 (29:22):

Just wanted to say one more thing because of what you just said. That's where the fundamentals become so important. So important. You have to remember the fundamentals of your business and of fleet operations, and even just for yourself personally, your own emotional and mental health. Don't ignore the fundamentals. Take care of your health. Get your exercise in. Look at your reports, manage those exceptions. Stay in touch with your people. It's really not a lot when you just get it going. I mean, it's just what we do on a day-to-day basis, but just don't take it for granted.

Speaker 2 (29:59):

It's a great point. It's a great point. Well, to wrap this up, how about a fun lightning round? Sure. Questions. All right. So some fun stuff all. First question, did you have a dream car as a kid?

Speaker 1 (30:14):

Yes. I still have a dream car. As adult, I would love to have a 1968 Mustang Shelby gt.

Speaker 2 (30:22):

Nice. Very nice. Yes,

Speaker 1 (30:24):

Very, very much so. Any

Speaker 2 (30:26):

Particular color?

Speaker 1 (30:28):

Yellow with black stripes.

Speaker 2 (30:30):

Oh, very nice.

Speaker 1 (30:31):

Very nice. Kind of on the Bumblebee theme, but not in a Camaro. Not that I have anything against Camaros. I love those two, but the Mustang has my heart.

Speaker 2 (30:40):

Have you or would you own an all electric car?

Speaker 1 (30:45):

I have considered it, actually. Even with my change of lifestyle here, I recently moved to where I'm at now and my radius is small, but I think until I'm a little bit more confined in how I would use an electric vehicle, I will put that purchase off. But I do have a hybrid, which is very economical for me. I'm glad that I have it, but yeah, I don't think an electric vehicle is out of my own personal purchase range, just not right now.

Speaker 2 (31:14):

Excellent. How long until we see a hundred percent all electric fleets across the board?

Speaker 1 (31:21):

Oh, I don't think you ever will.

Speaker 2 (31:24):

Fair. I was going to say like 50 years or something.

Speaker 1 (31:28):

No, I don't think you ever will. I think there's always going to be a blend of energy, and I think that there already are some a hundred percent electric fleets appropriately so right now, but I don't think it'll ever be 100% all of 'em.

Speaker 2 (31:45):

In our previous conversation, not on this call, but we had talked about the Wheels Donlin merger and those three companies coming together, and now it's a good thing. Will we see more consolidation in the space?

Speaker 1 (32:01):

Wow, that's a tough one. I mean, as far as the fleet management companies go, I mean the Wheels Donlin one was a little bit of a mindblower. That was like a wow. And then when Lease Plan joined the party, it was like, holy cow. I am not sure. I really can't speak to that because we're kind of at extremes, right? We've got some really great fleet management companies that really enjoy that mid to small size fleet space. And then you've got the wheels down on, or the wheels, I'm just going to call it Wheels that can do it all, really, but their niche is more global and of a larger size fleet. So I think things will be quiet for a while.

Speaker 2 (32:48):

Okay. And last question. Who's a better talk show host? Jimmy Fallon or Jimmy Kimmel? I,

Speaker 1 (32:56):

Oh, I love them both. They're so much fun. I got to go with Jimmy Kimmel, only because he's a Vegas boy, and I lived there for almost six years and Nice. I fell in love with that area. I mean, I'm glad I live where I live now, but it was a wonderful experience. I'm going with Jimmy Kimmel.

Speaker 2 (33:14):

Alright, that's fair. Yeah. Well, thank you so much, Sue. This has been a really great conversation. I hope our listeners have enjoyed it as much as we have enjoyed talking to you.

Speaker 1 (33:24):

Thank you. I've definitely enjoyed it as well. Thank you so much.