The NFL Super Bowl takes place Sunday February 3rd at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, GA. It will feature a match-up between the New England Patriots and Los Angeles Rams. This is the second appearance for Los Angeles in the Superbowl (4th if you count the St. Louis Rams). For the Patriots, this is their 11th appearance and impressively they have participated in 4 of the last 5 Super Bowls. There are several parallels between sport, business, teams and fleets. Mainly, we all want to win. The goal of a fleet, of every team, of every business, is to win. So how do you get your fleet to win, or rather, to the Super Bowl?

While not always a recipe for success, we find the best teams are composed of the below;

Great Coaches
Be it Sean McVay or Bill Belichick, both the Rams and Patriots have a strong coach. A great coach is integral to a team’s success as they are the ones responsible for setting the tone. They are the architects of the team and the organization’s culture. They have influence on their players, on their team’s scheme and arguably the single biggest influence on the outcome of the game. This is no different than the role of the Fleet Manager. The fleet manager needs to draw the plays for their dispatchers, so their dispatchers can let their drivers make great plays, so that the organization can win. A coach is responsible for outlining what is acceptable for his team and what is unacceptable, and then holds to task all those around them. The fleet manager does the same. They create and foster a culture of excellence, and then lean on their Captain(s) to implement that culture.

Great Captain(s)
Captain, Leader, Champion, call it what you want, the coach can’t do it alone. Neither can the fleet manager, they’ll need some Captains. Captains come in many forms within a fleets organization. Perhaps it’s a driver who embraces the technology and provides guidance and help to his colleagues while they are struggling. Or maybe it comes from dispatch and administration, helping with remote logbook edits or timely and accurate trip updates. Tom Brady is undoubtedly one of Bill Belichick’s captains and is considered the greatest quarterback of all time. For a long time though, people debated if Brady was great because of Belichick? In truth, that statement might be very accurate but what’s wrong with that? Success breeds success and personal success is usually a byproduct of team success. And team success usually results with wins.

Great Schemes
When your team possess the football you are on offense and you are trying to score on the defense. For this reason there are usually players who are specialists at either defensive or offensive positions. The coaches are divided the same way and so are the play designs. Now as divided as this may seem the teams that are successful and win play a style of football known as “complementary football”. Field position, clock management and playing to a teams strengths are all considered when playing a complementary style of football. This should be the same case for the Fleet Manager and his team. Driver and vehicle behaviours should be recorded not only for the benefit of the driver, but for administration, for the mechanics, and for the safety professionals. For example, the DVIR inspection that a driver completes prior to starting their shift should fulfill more than just the assurance that the vehicle is safe to operate for the driver. With Navistream, the DVIR inspection is accessible to view from any device the moment the inspection is complete. It notifies the dispatcher that they have safe to operate equipment for future loads, it is stored so safety professionals can access for audit purposes and, if there is an issue, mechanics can properly prepare themselves with proper time and supplies requirements.

Great Teammates
“Good teams have good players. Great teams have great teammates.” Almost every year, a franchise draft pick, or mega free agent signing is chalked as the saving grace for a team. More often than not though this excitement is met with disappointment as they are one of fifty three players. More than just the players, there are all the field staff, office staff, training and medical staff that need to be good teammates to win. When it comes to fleet management and the fleet manager, your vendors are your teammates. Because you need great teammates, your fleet deserves a teammate like Streamline. Talk to us about basic telematics and vehicle automation because like we mentioned above, we want to win.