For a public fleet, it's crucial to take care your clients. Having vehicles and personnel that look well maintained and neat is important, but that is only part of the equation. Negative perception typically focuses less on physical appearance.

Being a public fleet means you're under the scrutiny of taxpayers and stakeholders who want to make sure that their tax dollars are being put to good use. Fortunately, there is a tool your public fleet: telematics.

Wasteful behavior impacts fleets in a number of ways from direct costs to the potential for a ruinous liability payment, which fleet personnel should always aim to minimize. But public fleets have the added pressure of answering to both their stakeholders in city hall and the taxpayers — who have direct control over funding and operations.

For example, a driver may find it practical to idle her vehicle on a chilly morning while she completes morning paperwork — but a casual observer may see it as contrary to the city’s stated goals of improving the city's carbon footprint. A city hall stakeholder on the board of supervisors will see the fuel bill as unnecessarily high — pointing a finger at wasteful behavior.

This is certain to generate calls to the fleet department — including one from the city attorney concerned about the city's liability exposure due to this reckless driver.