cox fleet pushes for a better bottom line

AMERIT FLEET SOLUTIONS AND FLEET FINANCIALS PRESENT
VOL. 7, 2015
EXCLUSIVELY FOR TOP FLEETS IN NORTH AMERICA
PROS OF USING
3RD-PARTY
MAINTENANCE
DEAN FOODS
GETS GREEN
COX FLEET
PUSHES FOR
A BETTER
BOTTOM LINE
DO YOU HAVE
A TOP-LEVEL
MAINTENANCE
SHOP?
COVER STORY
Cox Fleet Finds
What’s Best for the
Bottom Line
S
ince launching the Cox Conserves sustainability program
eight years ago, Cox Enterprises
has made several changes to how the
fleet approaches efficiency.
A company-wide program, Cox Conserves is an initiative aiming to reduce
carbon output and other environmental impacts, and with a fleet of around
13,000 vehicles, carbon-output reductions can make a big impact to the
company’s carbon footprint. “In many
cases, what’s good for the environment
is good for the bottom line, and the
fleet is one of the greatest examples of
this,” says Elizabeth Olmstead, a Cox
Enterprises spokesperson.
Cox fleet experts Mark Leuenberger,
assistant vice president of supply chain
and fleet, and Jim Bigelow, director of
fleet, break down some of the most recent changes to fleet, including spec
changes and standardization, a look to
hybrids, routing refinement, and other
operational efficiencies.
Making the Work Van Switch
When the Cox Conserves program first
started, flex-fuel and biodiesel-capable
vehicles played a dominant role in the
company’s vehicle choice; however, as
biodiesel quickly waned and became
difficult to find at the pump, this was
no longer a viable fuel choice.
“You just can’t run a fleet of our size
on biodiesel right now,” Leuenberger
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Using fleet as a barometer in balancing
environmental initiatives with what’s best for the
bottom line, Cox Enterprises has been able to
recoup major fuel savings and carbon output
since starting the Cox Conserves sustainability
program in 2007. By Joanne Tucker
said. Moving to a clean diesel platform
was a far more feasible option. As a solution, Cox invested in the MercedesBenz Sprinter, and over the past two
years has replaced more than 1,500
Chevrolet Express and Ford E-Series
models with the diesel full-size van.
This year, the company is also piloting
60 new Ford Transit vans as well.
Leuenberger said the switch to the
Sprinter has been a “huge win” for Cox,
since the van has a higher payload,
more head room, and, important to
Cox, the company achieves about an
85% increase in miles per gallon.
Cox has three main criteria when
thinking about vehicle selection: cost,
quality and weight — the weight connects most with the Cox Conserves
program since less weight means less
fuel consumption.
“While the Sprinters are more expensive up front, those are the kinds of
things that Cox is willing to invest in,”
he says. “It’s an all-around win for us.
In the end, once you calculate the total
cost of ownership, it’s really cheaper to
own despite diesel being a little more
expensive.”
Drivers have been pleased with the
vehicle choice, particularly noting the
tighter turning radius.
Standardization
with Flexibility
To achieve the switch to the Sprinter,
Cox underwent spec standardization
across its entire fleet, from vans to
bucket trucks. The Cox fleet is managed
as a shared service among the company’s operating groups, which makes
standardization — as well as negotiating for better pricing — easier to do.
The standardization is flexible, however, and considers variables such as
weather and terrain.
“We don’t say this is the cookie-cutter truck that everyone gets because we
know that operations in Phoenix will
have different requirements compared
to New England,” Leuenberger said.
When it came to standardizing, fleet
“90% of Cox
Communications
vehicles utilize
hybrid operating
systems that
produce zero
emissions during
aerial boom
operations.”
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COVER STORY
shared services reached out to
those divisions and customers
for input. Once all specs were
gathered, they were reviewed to
ensure that operating costs and
environmental impact were on
par with company goals.
For bucket trucks, the company is using electric-hydraulic
booms, so the trucks don’t have
to idle to operate the boom lift,
or increase the rate of engine
wear and tear. While the price
point is higher, the savings in
fuel and maintenance, and a
quieter operation, are big positives for the bucket truck fleet.
Within Cox Communications,
the company’s broadband communications and entertainment
division, 90% of the vehicles utilize hybrid operating systems that produce
zero emissions during aerial boom operations.
“Everything we do is an evolution
— we started with an all-in hybrid
truck but this is what we’re doing now,”
Leuenberger said. Currently, Ford
chassis trucks are the standard bucket
body for Cox with either Altec or ETI
booms.
Another strategy shift within overall fleet standards is that the company
maintains a tighter fleet replacement
cycle of at least six years, though with
the investment in Sprinters, the company is expecting them to last longer.
“We have found with the natural
progression of the CAFE standards that
vehicles every year are getting a little
bit better mileage, so as we turn our vehicles, we’re getting better mileage that
way,” Leuenberger said.
Maintenance is also a piece of the
company’s standardization practices.
According to Bigelow, the entire chassis as well as all upfits on vehicles are
checked for any mechanical or safety
issues at every scheduled maintenance
interval. On the boom trucks, this
helps prevent any hydraulic failures,
for example.
“We’ve taken the approach that
good PM on the entire vehicle will do
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Cox fleet is testing out several different
types of vans, including 60 new Ford Transit
vans.
as much as possible to eliminate those
problems,” he said. “We do not have a
substantial amount of hydraulic problems and we attribute that to our PM
program.”
Testing Out Hybrid
Vans & Other Alternatives
Across the whole fleet, Cox Enterprises
has nearly 300 hybrid vehicles that
it has deployed since starting hybrid
initiatives in 2012, and 10% of those
are partial zero-emissions and LEEDranked vehicles.
The fleet also recently completed the
final stages of its first hybrid van pilot test with XL Hybrids, a third-party
electrification company that provides
bolt-on hybrid systems for several van
models. Satisfied with the first test
overall, Cox is working with XL to incorporate some additional software
updates to continue the testing.
The XL Hybrids system is slightly
different than a typical conversion. The
only modification done to the vehicle
is that the driveshaft is shortened. This
makes it an attractive option for Cox,
especially since tightening its fleet replacement cycle.
“If we do something with the truck or
it reaches the end of its life, we can unbolt the system and bolt it onto the next
truck, so we don’t have to deal with
anything integrated with the vehicle,”
Bigelow says.
Similar to the spec standardization, any technology additions must go
through a stringent internal analysis.
In the case of the hybrids, the Cox Conserves program has already signed off
on the energy portion of the review.
Cox has added several vans from
XL Hybrids for the pilot program. The
company expects to see an ROI be-
About Cox Enterprises
C
ox Enterprises is a top communications, media and automotive
services company with major operating subsidiaries that
include Cox Communications, a cable television, high-speed
Internet, telephone, home security and automation company; Cox
Automotive, which provides auctions, financial services, and media
and software solutions to the automotive industry; and Cox Media
Group, which includes multiple television and radio stations, digital
media, newspapers and adverting sales firms. Other major national
brands include Autotrader, Kelly Blue Book, Manheim, Savings.com
and Valpak.
tween 2.5 and 3.5 years, and would
only use the vehicles for urban routes,
since the regenerative braking and
other hybrid features are more useful
for non-highway driving.
The company has been looking at
hybrids for a while, but had yet to find
anything that would work for the Cox
fleet due to weight constraints.
“You put all the batteries in the vehicle and now you don’t have the same
capacity for equipment,” Leuenberger
says, adding that this research is another reason the Cox Conserves program is such a great asset. When the
fleet is first approached by a vendor,
everything is turned over to the Cox
Conserves team to research ROI and
environmental impact.
Leuenberger adds that probably
about 20% of the product and information that comes across the fleet desk is
tested, and about 1% of those tests are
actually deployed fleet wide. The company tries to focus on improving what is
already in place since that strategy often provides quick and achievable goals
when it comes to operational efficiencies — hence why only 1% of technology
tested at Cox is actually put into use.
“Once you adversely impact your operations, you negate all the benefits,”
Leuenberger says.
For example, Cox has tested out natural gas vehicles (NGVs) as a possible
fleet option but doesn’t plan to implement any NGVs — namely because of
infrastructure. But as infrastructure
has developed more over just the last
year, the company is working and
sharing best practices with other major fleets that have taken on NGVs. Cox
aims to determine if there are opportunities now to take on natural gas, possibly even through a collaborative effort.
“We also continue to work with natural gas companies and conversion companies on giving them our thoughts on
what would make a successful vehicle
for us,” Leuenberger says.
In areas where infrastructure wasn’t
an issue, fill time and vehicle capacity came up as operational challenges,
for example. In NGV pilot tests, due to
Routing and vehicle diagnostics software has
enabled technicians like Guy Rounds (above)
to reduce average idle times by an estimated
hour and 15 minutes.
reduced capacity and longer fill times,
Cox found that drivers were having to
return to the office more often to get
supplies, and generally had less time
to fulfill services at the same rate. “It
ends up costing us more and they’re
burning more fuel that way anyway,”
Leuenberger explains.
Efficient Routing = Driving Less
The simple conclusion that, when
you drive less, you burn less fuel is why
Cox got on board early to add routing
software to its field service fleet. Now,
the company is deploying routing
software across all its operating units,
starting with the installation of GPS
systems in 5,000 vehicles so far. The
company expects this expansion will
give all its operations about a 20% reduction in mileage.
Essentially, the routing software
continuously reshuffles the deck
throughout the day — taking into account scheduled services as well as
unplanned outages — to ensure that
techs are driving to the next closest job
they’re equipped to handle versus a set
group of locations to reach that day.
So far, the GPS systems have helped
the company save more than 1 million
gallons of fuel and have cut the company’s carbon footprint more than 25
million pounds.
In addition to GPS, Cox is using vehicle diagnostics software and trafficmapping to help control idling and
avoid traffic-ridden routes. Cox reports
that in the first year of use, these two
solutions have reduced average idle
time by 84% per vehicle from about 90
minutes to less than 15 minutes per
day.
These initiatives is why Cox Enterprises frequently is named in fleet
awards and lists, including being
named a Top Electric Fleet from Green
Fleet magazine for several years in a
row. Bigelow was also named a Fleet
Sustainability All-Star in 2014. LF
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