Peter Collis, Fleet Manager for Higgins Concrete, explains how the friendly and trustworthy team at Fleetwise has helped deal with vehicle and plant disposals and a big admin headache.
Higgins Concrete is a family-owned company that provides quality concrete and associated services across the country.
Before using Fleetwise, Higgins Concrete were dealing with messy admin processes, maintenance jobs they didn’t have time for, and the endless hassle of selling their end-of-life plant and vehicles – either by scrapping them or using a traditional auction house.
But for the past decade, they’ve been using Fleetwise for fleet disposals and are delighted with the results.
We spoke to Higgins Concrete Fleet Manager, Peter Collis, who explained how having Fleetwise manage their vehicles gave their company time to focus on more important things – like growing their business.
Outsourced management = less admin and less maintenance
Before Fleetwise, Higgins Concrete was doing things the old-fashioned way. When a vehicle was at end-of-life, they’d either park it in a paddock or try to sell it. But selling old vehicles came with a lot of hassle. Buyers had expectations that didn’t match the realities of buying very old vehicles. That meant dealing with complaints, and all the associated admin.
Higgins’ managing vehicle disposal themselves had meant their mechanics having to decommission and detail vehicles for sale. They knew this wasn’t a good use of time and that they’d be much better off doing something more productive for the firm.
In the end, most of their vehicles would end up unused and unsold. So Higgins Concrete was missing out on reclaiming the value from their old parts, vehicles, and equipment and they weren’t making a cent.
It was clear this system was outdated and wasn’t working for their business. They needed a new system – fast.
“Trustworthy, honest, and a good sense of humour.”
Higgins have built up a great relationship with Fleetwise over the years. At the beginning, Peter says everyone was on board to give Fleetwise a go, and it was a success from the beginning – with results beyond their expectations, every time.
Something that really stood out was how friendly and transparent the Fleetwise team was to deal with.
“They’re all very trustworthy, honest, and have a good sense of humour. You always know what’s going on – they explain everything very clearly. They’re very transparent with their fees and the way they run things.”
Peter says it’s been great to be able to view their vehicles on the Fleetwise store on TradeMe on an open market, nationwide listing. It means they can keep tabs on what’s happening with the sale, and everything’s above board.
It’s turned what was a burden into a bit of a sport. “It’s quite exciting, watching bids start to come in!” Peter says.
Fleetwise a “one-stop-shop” for NZ fleet disposal
Since making the switch to Fleetwise, Higgins’ no longer has admin woes or unhappy private plant and vehicles buyers from its ex-fleet vehicle sales.
With alerts when a vehicle is coming to its end-of-life, Higgins Concrete simply send the job to Fleetwise, and they don’t have to worry about a thing.
“They’ve just taken the grief out of the team having to deal with disposals,” Peter explains.
Now, Higgins Concrete send end-of-life vehicles to Fleetwise where they deal with everything: grooming and detailing the vehicle, removing radio and telephones, removing branding, and disposing of waste the proper way before putting them up for sale.
And it’s not just standard vehicle disposal they’re experts in. “Fleetwise will sell just about anything – a boat, chainsaw, concrete truck, or an excavator.”
Free up time to grow business
With Fleetwise taking care of disposals, the Higgins Concrete team has more time to focus on their expertise and take the business to new heights. It’s removed a huge amount of worry away, Peter says.
“Some people feel out of their depth having to deal with this sort of thing – and Fleetwise just take that stress away.”
Plus, with money coming in from the on-behalf sales of defunct assets, they’re putting money back into the company.
As for recommending Fleetwise to other New Zealand businesses, it’s a clean, ‘Yes’ from Peter.
“We’ve been very happy with the hassle-free nature of the transactions. Fleetwise has always exceeded our expectations – especially with asset returns.”