Critical Obstacles: What Keeps Fleet Managers Up at Night?

Managing the fleet operations of linen, uniform and facility services companies comes with challenges that can generate stress and sleeplessness for fleet managers and other executives. Textile Services Weekly heard a lot about the difficulties confronting these managers during a panel discussion at the TRSA Fleet Summit in Baltimore.

The summit was held in partnership with the NAFA 2023 Institute and Expo at the Baltimore Convention Center. This three-day extravaganza from April 17-19 included a series of standing-room-only educational sessions on issues including the widely anticipated state and federal mandates requiring fleets to move to electric or other propulsion systems that don’t use fossil fuels such as diesel in order to combat climate change. TRSA’s Director of Membership/Industry Outreach Ken Koepper moderated the Fleet Summit panel.

“I think there’s still a lot of unknowns,” said panelist Tim Stuewer, director of operations support for Alsco Uniforms, Salt Lake City, regarding the move to electric vehicle (EV) fleets. “It’s obviously coming.” He added that fleet managers must keep their “eyes wide open,” regarding this shift, especially in states such as California that are close to finalizing rules to ban the sales of gasoline-powered cars by 2035. Stuewer, whose company currently operates 35 EV step vans on a pilot basis in the Golden State, cited concerns about limited manufacturers’ battery warranties and significant delays in getting public utilities to install charging equipment at the plants.

Other panelists who participated in the April 17 discussion included: Ernest Addington, COO, Halifax Linen Service Inc., Roanoke Rapids, NC; Spencer Fisher, fleet and facilities manager, Miller’s Textile Services, Wapakoneta, OH; and Rusty Thomas, safety manager, Superior Linen Service, Tulsa, OK.

Among the concerns the panelists cited regarding the push to convert to EV fleets were:

• Battery warranties of five years or less. This could limit the supposed benefits of reduced maintenance and fuel costs, thus pushing ROI far into the future.
• Limited infrastructure for charging vehicles, even in California and other states that are pushing these mandates aggressively.
• Trepidation that – unlike some commercial fleet vehicles – laundries tend to go out full and come back full after picking up soiled goods from customers such as hospitals, restaurants, factories and hotels. This could put greater demands on batteries, thus requiring more-frequent charging.
• One panelist said experts tell him that the maximum distance an EV truck can drive without recharging is as little as 300 miles, significantly less than a conventional truck.
• Worries about the significantly higher costs for the vehicles themselves with no guarantees that state or federal subsidies for businesses to defray the costs of converting to EV fleets.
• Concerns about reduced battery life in cold weather, and more.

TRSA Vice President of Government Relations Kevin Schwalb says he’s working closely with state and federal officials to avoid rushing into a transition that could disrupt laundries and other businesses as well as consumers. He said the problem is that once regulators decided to mandate a move to EV transportation, they gave auto manufacturers a perverse incentive to say “yes” when asked if they could accommodate the change, due to the prospect of increased sales. Similarly, in assessing the economic impact of the switch to electricity, if regulators don’t get the answers they want from studies, they keep devising new analyses until they obtain the answers they want. While a change in presidential administrations could slow the national shift to EV, states like California are likely to move forward regardless of who’s in charge in Washington. Other states, such as those on the West Coast, are expected to model their own EV rules on whatever California mandates, Schwalb said.

Among other concerns that the panelists raised were ongoing supply-chain bottlenecks in acquiring new fleet vehicles, regardless of whether they’re in lease programs or purchased directly. At least one panelist said they’re moving from leasing to an ownership model in order to get greater control over the process of vehicle acquisitions and management. Another issue is the age of fleet vehicles. Due to the recent shortages of trucks, companies are holding onto vehicles longer. The panelists said that purchasing or leasing new vehicles can take a year or longer for delivery. Consequently, cannibalization of parts from “spare” vehicles is increasingly common. Ordering new parts can take significant lead times as well. One panelist said he’s waited more than 15 months for his leasing company to deliver a dome-light switch for a route truck.

As if these concerns weren’t enough, route managers daily confront the possibility that a route driver will violate company policies and use a cell phone while driving. This behavior could lead to accidents with serious or fatal injuries. The follow-on to such incidents is likely to include liability lawsuits that could render “nuclear verdicts.” These massive awards could bankrupt or threaten the viability of a linen, uniform and facility services company.

In response, several panelists said they’re now considering or are in the process of installing “dash cams” or dashboard cameras that will trigger disciplinary action if a driver is observed violating cell phone rules or committing other infractions. The flip side of this issue is that double-facing cameras can protect route drivers if another vehicle makes a collision unavoidable. “We’ve had some incidents where we were involved in accidents,” Stuewer said. “In every case so far, it has exonerated us because our driver was trying to do the right thing. People were just getting impatient with our trucks.”