How have we added value on Fleet Management?

Potential clients often ask me why they should use our services when they perceive they can do a project in- house ” for free”?

I have just worked on a fleet management project for one of my major national charities, which answers that question quite well.

The dilemma the client faced was that they had a large ageing minibus fleet. They were however inexperienced at buying fleets as they had always owned the vehicles before, were not sure if they should sell their old fleet and rent the vehicles back, had no knowledge regarding the costs of maintenance of vehicles going forward, and have a strong environmental policy so wanted to reduce their carbon footprint. Just some of the many complex issues to consider when looking at a very significant overhead.

After comprehensive financial and operational analysis and a tender process, we recommended that they sell their existing fleet on the open market and lease new vehicles with maintenance fully included. By having access to the most competitive funders we also achieved a saving of £55,000 compared to the tender received from the organisation they were already dealing with.

We are now project managing the implementation of the contract which is a detailed process, including the sale of old vehicles, client logos and livery on new vehicles and the swap of new for old vehicles simultaneously, which is vital to the charity to keep their services running.

All part of the service!

An Introductory Guide to Electricity Generation from Solar Panels

There has become a general increase in awareness with regards to renewable energy, especially as energy suppliers are passing through the costs of subsidizing installations through government schemes to end users’ bills.

Last month in my article, Lean and Mean Before You Go Green, I described how you should, before embarking on any renewable energy scheme, first ensure that you have followed the hierarchy of reducing your energy costs. This month, we look at electricity generation from Solar PV.

The Financial Case for Solar PV

Clearly, if this is not attractive enough, there is no point in reading the remainder of this article as this addresses the more technical issues. Basically, there are three options available and we will typically offer to evaluate each one:

• Self funded – in which case the ROI is typically about 7 years
• Financed – still an outright purchase but with a loan which can be sourced via the Carbon Trust
• ‘Free’ System (funded by investors)

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Philips LED – A major energy-saving breakthrough

Philips is the world’s first to present a lamp prototype that produces a record 200 lumen per watt (lm/W) of high quality warm white light. This Philips LED technology breakthrough introduces tremendous potential for lowering energy consumption for lighting by half. Given that lighting accounts for c.15% of energy consumption worldwide, this innovation could drive massive cost and energy savings.

Until now, the relative energy efficiency of fluorescent lighting (100lm/W) has seen it dominate in office and industrial environments. Homes and shops, meanwhile, have tended to stick with the gentler, warmer light produced by conventional bulbs (operating at around 15lm/W) or halogen lights (25lm/W). Philips’ new 200lm/W LED, however, leaves all three technologies in the shade. Vastly more energy efficient than incandescent and halogen lighting, LED can drive down energy bills
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Effective Cost Management from Denis and Rhys Brennan

Auditel Cost Management Consultant, Denis Brennan, says: “I am really a ‘solutions provider’ to my clients, a ‘solutions consultant’ if you like. Most clients have problems with the time that it takes to deal with issues that are not their core competencies or core business interests. We take that pressure away and do the work for them.”

Denis joined Auditel in September 2008. He had a distinguished career with the Arjowiggins Group, the multi-national paper manufacturing company, for many years. Latterly he held the key role of ITC Performance Director, where he was involved in controlling telecoms services and business costs. This gave him extensive experience of overseeing projects and programmes within challenging schedules and budgets.

Opening his Auditel business allowed him to focus this experience on his clients’ behalf. Denis says: “I really enjoy the situation that Auditel has provided for me, to work within a variety of business sectors. While my goal is obviously to help my clients, I have been pleasantly surprised by the opportunities to learn new ideas and concepts.”
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Highly effective cost management for the hotel and leisure industry

Auditel, the UK’s leading independent cost management consultancy, have found savings of many thousands of pounds on business costs for the hotel and leisure industry.

Over the last four years this industry, which is of substantial importance to the UK economy, has faced increasing headwinds. Household disposable income has declined and the Government imposed additional costs of £3.5bn per year since 2010. Thus trade remains far below the pre-2007 growth trend in revenues and jobs. Operating costs are also rising as energy inflation has averaged 4.7% per year since 2008.
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Energy Rationing Anyone?

Ofgem’s recent warning that the margin of spare capacity on the network will reduce from 14 per cent today to 5 per cent by 2015 has caused a stir in the energy industry. Talk of energy rationing and the “energy gap” are widespread.

As a business that helps organisations to manage energy more efficiently, this comes as no surprise. There are two tectonic plates clashing over the next few years, and predicting exactly what will happen is increasingly difficult – even National Grid has moved away from a single best estimate to a range of scenarios.

So what are these tectonic plates? The first is the Government’s target on climate change – namely: To produce 30% of electricity from renewable sources by 2020; to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50% on 1990 levels by 2025 and to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80% on 1990 levels by 2050. The second is the continued and steady decline in UK oil and gas, with ever increasing reliance on foreign imports of energy (the UK is already a net importer of energy).
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Procurement Outsourcing

Most companies outsource.

• New member of staff? Recruitment Consultant or Agency
• Legal advice? Solicitor
• Financial advice? Accountant
• Marketing advice? Marketing Consultant

But why outsource? Why not do it in-house? Consider the benefits of outsourcing:

• Immediate access to specialist knowledge and expertise
• No direct employment costs – salary, NI, holiday pay, employee benefits, pension costs, absence cover etc
• Flexible cost options on an ‘as-needs’ basis
• Huge time savings – concentrate on running the core business activity

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Energy Prices and Delusion

On Saturday I met a Conservative MP whose primary message was that things in our teetering economy are improving. The media just choose not to report them. As evidence, he cited the February new cars sales increase (7% year on year) and falling unemployment figures. When asked what the Government was doing to help the consumer, he made much of the commitment to hold down energy prices for households (there was no mention of business).

Yesterday gas prices hit a 13 month high. 5 coal fired power stations are being closed in the next few months to satisfy EEC environmental regulations, taking about 17% of the capacity out of the National Grid. The head of Ofgem has said that these will have to be replaced by gas fired stations over the next few years because any increase in nuclear capacity is at least 7 years away.

Wind farms are costing us, not saving us and as we all know only contribute when the wind blows.
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What is Energy Management?

Energy management is a complex and confusing area in which most organisations need specialist advice from assessment to implementation and measurement in order to minimise the risks and maximise the benefits.

What is Energy Management? 

“The sum of the measures planned and carried out to achieve the objective of using the minimum possible energy while comfort and production levels are maintained.”

According to the Carbon Trust (CTG054):

“Successful Energy Management doesn’t just happen, it needs commitment, planning, implementation and sustained effort.

What is Energy Management?

According to experts in 60 countries who have developed the ISO 50001 Energy Management Systems, it’s a standard that supports energy efficiency, every day, to help you save energy, cut costs and meet environmental standards.
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Easy way of halving business energy costs …and results are guaranteed

That’s right we take all the risks by offering you a ‘No Win, No Fee’ Energy Efficiency Survey.

….and we follow ISO 50001 Energy Management Systems, the internationally recognised standard which outlines energy management practices that are considered to be the best, globally.

Having assessed your energy efficiency requirements, we then take responsibility for the procurement, implementation and your on-going energy management so you can tap into  that expertise, every day, to help you save energy, cut costs and meet latest environmental standards.

….and best of all our fees are paid out of your realised savings!

Of course there is an alternative, do use suppliers with an agenda to assess what you need and manage all this yourself. So here is a starter list of the key business energy costs saving areas to consider.

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