Sunday, March 21, 2004
Mercury Associates, Inc. - Mercury is a consulting firm whose principals and employees have over 100 years of experience as professional operations managers and management consultants. We provide a wide array of fleet management services to organizations with vehicles and equipment fleets of all sizes and composition. Our fleet management consulting services include, but are not limited to - organization structure and staffing assessment, business best practice review, competitiveness assessment, cost of services analysis, fleet size and composition review, vehicle and equipment utilization study, fleet safety review, lease versus buy analysis, leasing and procurement contract auditing and negotiation, maintenance outsourcing and in-sourcing feasibility assessment, maintenance outsourcing contract negotiation, managed competition assistance, motor pool assessment, replacement plan development and acquisition funding alternatives, charge - back rate development, information systems implementation and replacement services, application hosting, parts management review, product and services procurement study, fuel management assessment, facility design and condition assessment, regulation and legislation compliance analysis, and alternative fuel program planning. To learn more about their fleet management consulting services go to http://www.mercury-assoc.com
Our number one goal as a fleet maintenance consulting firm is to provide high-value services to organizations and fleet operations, both big and small, in the public and private sectors. We believe that the large number of fleet maintenance operations that have engaged our services over the past 25 years is the best testament to our ability to achieve this goal. Moreover, virtually no other firm in the fleet industry can offer the wide array of consulting services.
Moreover, we are committed to providing fleet maintenance consulting services whose value far exceeds their costs, because we understand that the decision to engage a fleet maintenance consulting firm is a momentous one for many organizations. In fact, many fleet management operations often contract with a consultant only after all other possible avenues for solving a problem or answering a question have been exhausted. We recognize that many fleet operations spend years trying to secure funds to hire a consulting firm, and that, once secured, such funds must generate a significant "return on investment." To this end, we are prepared to address every facet of our clients' fleet operations, not just the most obvious or easily understood practices. We also utilize structured, time-tested methodologies and analytical tools that save us time and our clients' money while producing understandable, defensible findings, practical recommendations, and realistic solutions.
Some of the fleet consulting services that we provide include:
Fuel Management
Nearly 50% of the annual cost of operating and maintaining a typical fleet is directly attributed to fuel and fuel management. It is also an area of fleet management that has become extremely complicated, because of legislation and policies at local, state, and federal government levels, global economics, vast changes in technology, increased availability of alternative fuel types, new multi-fuel enabled and hybrid vehicles and equipment, and on-going pressures to reduce emissions. Thus, for many people fuel management is a black box of complex issues, which require large sums of funding.
Minor improvements in a fuel management program, however, can yield significant savings in the short and long term. The fleet consulting professionals at Mercury understand the issues surrounding fuel management and have extensive, first-hand experience producing solutions to these problems for clients. In fact, some of our fuel management consulting services have saved clients millions of dollars, while at the same expanding the availability of fuel site locations.
Some of our fuel management consulting services include:
Alternative Fuel Program Development
Alternative Fuel Program Reviews
Bulk Fuel Site Design and Engineering
Commercial Fuel Program Development
Emission Reduction Planning
Fuel Management Program Development
Fuel Management Program Review
Tax Reimbursement Optimization
Fuel Site Consolidation Reviews
Fuel Site Mapping and Location Services
Fuel Services Outsourcing
Fuel System Audit
System Implementation and Replacement Services
Fuel System Troubleshooting and Upgrades
Fuel System Interface Design
System Application Hosting
Parts Management
A significant portion of a fleet maintenance operation's annual expenditures can be accounted for in parts management. This cost can vary significantly from one fleet operation to the next depending on the composition, age, and application of equipment in a fleet. However, the primary goal of every parts operation is to maintain a sufficient inventory in order to fill a high percentage of part requests immediately while sustaining a high part turn-over rate. This can be a difficult task, due to the logistics with seasonal parts, vehicle and equipment replacements, poor vendor performance, cumbersome procurement procedures, insufficient warehousing space, inadequate staffing levels, an antiquated information system, and a wide array of other factors. Hence, efforts to reduce a parts operation's costs and maintain an inventory to sustain an acceptable fill-rate can often time seem to be diametrically opposed.
As previous fleet managers and as professional consultants we have a lot of industry experience and knowledge of the best practices in parts management. We understand the issues that affect the availability of inventory, part turn-over, stocking levels, reordering points, minimum and maximum levels, and the spectrum of other elements that influence a parts operation. We also understand matters associated with procurement policies and procedures. In fact, a principal consultant in our firm previously served as a procurement agent for a local government in Florida for several years.
Some of our parts management consulting services include:
Electronic Procurement Strategies
Parts Availability and Stocking Level Review
Parts Management Reengineering
Parts Management Reviews
Procurement Procedures Assessments
Vendor / Contractor Performance Reviews
Parts Warehouse Layout and Design
Inventory Valuation Services
Parts Management Outsourcing
Fleet Replacement
The replacement of vehicles and equipment in a timely manner is a problem for many fleet operations. The decision to replacement equipment is often driven by the fiscal health of the organization, breakdown or failure of the asset, or some other unpredictable factor. However, a proper fleet replacement program can provide both fleet reliability and fiscal stability for a fleet operation and to the general organization.
Our consultants have been providing fleet replacement planning services for decades, which is why dozens of fleet operations have contracted with us over the years. Whether you utilize ad hoc appropriations, lease-purchase, debt financing, or a hybrid approach our fleet consultant team can assist you in developing a long-term replacement strategy. Moreover, as part of our fleet replacement planning services we will model several funding and purchasing approaches so that you have the quantitative information to justify the final funding approach.
Some of our fleet replacement consulting services and solutions include:
Development of a Fleet Replacement Fund
Review of Existing Replacement Plan Criteria
Multi-Year Fleet Replacement Planning Services
Audit of Fleet Replacement Fund Balance and Utilization
Develop Fleet Replacement Cycles and Scheduling Services
Establish Alternative Funding Sources for Timely Replacement
Lease Versus Buy Analysis
Employee Mileage Reimbursement Feasibility / Replacement Program Alternatives
Vehicle and Equipment Replacement Planning Software
Inventory Valuation Services
General Fleet Operations
Our group of fleet maintenance consultants frequently are contracted to provide general operation reviews. Perhaps this is due to the value that we produce as a result of our findings. We often hear about studies, such as a strategic business plan, that our consulting professionals performed nearly a decade ago are still frequently referenced and utilized in management decisions. We believe that this is the best testament to our ability to achieve provide high quality, valuable consultant services. Moreover, virtually no other firm in the fleet industry can provide our wide array of general fleet consulting services.
Some of our general fleet maintenance consulting services include:
Business Process Reengineering
Fleet Management Training
Operation Best Practice Reviews
Operation Competitiveness Assessments
Organizational Realignment
Policy and Procedure Development
Staffing Level Assessments
Strategic Business Planning
Managed Competition Facilitation
Vendor Contract Negotiations
Vendor Contract Reviews
Industry Standards and Benchmarking Studies
Performance Measurement Solutions
Fleet Maintenance Outsourcing Consulting Services
Fleet maintenance outsourcing is a process that most people view as an all or nothing process. In some cases this is true. However, we often find fleet operations that are very efficient at specific services, such as preventive maintenance. In such an instance an appropriate solution may be a hybrid approach - outsourcing specific activities and services of a fleet operation. Nonetheless, the choice of either outsourcing part or an entire operation is not an easy one. It often times requires the review of an impartial party that understands when an operation should be outsourced, how it should be done, and the contractual pitfalls that can result in unforeseen charges and financial liability.
Mercury is uniquely qualified to provide you with outsourcing consulting services, because we have worked for many years with both internally managed and outsourced fleet operations, negotiated several outsourcing maintenance contracts for clients, and provided managed competition services.
Some of our outsourcing consulting services include:
Managed Competition Facilitation
Outsourcing Contract Negotiations
Outsourcing Feasibility Reviews
Outsourcing Facilitation
Competitveness Assessment
Bid and RFP Preparation
Activity Based Costing
Mechanic Rate Development
Target and Non-Target Pricing
Fleet Maintenance Information Services (FMIS)
One of the most significant changes in the fleet industry has been a veritable explosion of quantitative data. The sources of these data are multitude: fleet maintenance information systems, fuel management systems, ERP and financial management systems, professional association databases, the Internet, GPS and AVL solutions, web-based reporting engines, ad hoc report writers, and document imaging systems.
The increased availability of data on the fleet and the fleet operations has placed significant pressure on fleet managers and staff to maintain and produce a wide array of management information for clients, financial and auditing departments, executives, elected officials, and the general public. A major challenge for fleet managers has been and will continue to be the struggle to keep these entities sufficiently informed in a timely manner. Some of the best fleet managers in the industry have addressed this requirement by implementing proactive processes and solutions that push information to stakeholders on a regular schedule. Push technology can automatically deliver key management decision making information to email accounts, printers, fax machines, pagers, PDAs, and other communication devices. An increasing number of fleet management organizations are using their own web sites as a means of distributing invoices, reservation confirmations, recall notices, and the like to their customers.
As a leading provider of fleet consulting services and business solutions Mercury is uniquely qualified to assist fleet organizations with their information technology needs - from A to Z. Our fleet consulting professionals have assisted several clients in the selection, implementation, and maintenance of new and replacement fleet information systems. We have also reengineered local and wide-area networks, implemented firewalls and security solutions, and provided ad hoc reporting solutions and fleet information systems. Learn more about our fleet technology solutions.
In addition to offering local services to fleet organizations, we also provide application hosting services. Our hosting service allows a fleet operation to implement leading edge business tools (e.g. fleet information system, ad hoc reporting, on-line consulting, and much more) without the upfront cost and time of implementing a system locally. Users pay a fixed monthly subscription fee to access these resources, while we manage server replacements, application upgrades, security and antivirus countermeasures, and data backups. Learn more about our hosting solutions at http://www.mercury-assoc.com/solutions.asp.
Some of our fleet maintenance information services include:
Application Hosting - Multiple Fleet Systems Available
Ad Hoc Report Training
Application Training
Applied Fleet Principals Training
Windows Training
Custom Report Development
Data Integrity Audits
Fleet Information System Implementation
Fleet Information System RFP Development and Replacement Planning
Fleet Information System Selection
Thin Client Design, Implementation, and Maintenance
Implementation of LAN / WAN / Wireless Solutions
Application Hosting Services - Business Applications
System and Technology Audits
Implementation Quality Assurance Review
Security Topology Review
ERP Interface Design and Development
Fit - Gap Analysis ( e.g. ERP versus fleet information systems )
E-commerce
Fuel System Implementation and Integration
Fuel and Fleet System Troubleshooting
Fuel Interface Design
Electronic Equipment Repair Manual Integration
Electronic Equipment Repair Manual Hosting
Automated Vehicle Location ( AVL ) Solutions
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For further information about our fleet maintenance consulting services or a fleet consultant please contact us at:
Mercury Associates, Inc.
Fleet Maintenance Consultant Services
7701 Shady Brook Lane
Gaithersburg, Maryland 20879
voice/fax: 240 631 6780
email: contactme@mercury-assoc.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Website Links
http://www.directionsmag.com/companies/Mercury_Fleet_Consultants_-_Vehicle_and_Equipment_Management_Consulting/
http://www.directionsmag.com/companies/Mercury_Fleet_Management_Consulting/
http://www.directionsmag.com/companies/Mercury_Fleet_Management_Consultants/
http://www.directionsmag.com/companies/Mercury_Fleet_Management_Consultant/
http://mercury-assoc.blogspot.com
http://fleetmanagementconsultants.blogspot.com
http://www.mercury-assoc.com
http://www.mercury-assoc.com/services.asp
http://www.mercury-assoc.com/aboutus.asp
http://www.mercury-assoc.com/solutions.asp
http://bbs.mercury-assoc.com
http://www.mercury-assoc.com/resources
http://www.mercury-assoc.net
http://www.mercury-assoc.biz
http://www.mercury-assoc.info
Our number one goal as a fleet maintenance consulting firm is to provide high-value services to organizations and fleet operations, both big and small, in the public and private sectors. We believe that the large number of fleet maintenance operations that have engaged our services over the past 25 years is the best testament to our ability to achieve this goal. Moreover, virtually no other firm in the fleet industry can offer the wide array of consulting services.
Moreover, we are committed to providing fleet maintenance consulting services whose value far exceeds their costs, because we understand that the decision to engage a fleet maintenance consulting firm is a momentous one for many organizations. In fact, many fleet management operations often contract with a consultant only after all other possible avenues for solving a problem or answering a question have been exhausted. We recognize that many fleet operations spend years trying to secure funds to hire a consulting firm, and that, once secured, such funds must generate a significant "return on investment." To this end, we are prepared to address every facet of our clients' fleet operations, not just the most obvious or easily understood practices. We also utilize structured, time-tested methodologies and analytical tools that save us time and our clients' money while producing understandable, defensible findings, practical recommendations, and realistic solutions.
Some of the fleet consulting services that we provide include:
Fuel Management
Nearly 50% of the annual cost of operating and maintaining a typical fleet is directly attributed to fuel and fuel management. It is also an area of fleet management that has become extremely complicated, because of legislation and policies at local, state, and federal government levels, global economics, vast changes in technology, increased availability of alternative fuel types, new multi-fuel enabled and hybrid vehicles and equipment, and on-going pressures to reduce emissions. Thus, for many people fuel management is a black box of complex issues, which require large sums of funding.
Minor improvements in a fuel management program, however, can yield significant savings in the short and long term. The fleet consulting professionals at Mercury understand the issues surrounding fuel management and have extensive, first-hand experience producing solutions to these problems for clients. In fact, some of our fuel management consulting services have saved clients millions of dollars, while at the same expanding the availability of fuel site locations.
Some of our fuel management consulting services include:
Alternative Fuel Program Development
Alternative Fuel Program Reviews
Bulk Fuel Site Design and Engineering
Commercial Fuel Program Development
Emission Reduction Planning
Fuel Management Program Development
Fuel Management Program Review
Tax Reimbursement Optimization
Fuel Site Consolidation Reviews
Fuel Site Mapping and Location Services
Fuel Services Outsourcing
Fuel System Audit
System Implementation and Replacement Services
Fuel System Troubleshooting and Upgrades
Fuel System Interface Design
System Application Hosting
Parts Management
A significant portion of a fleet maintenance operation's annual expenditures can be accounted for in parts management. This cost can vary significantly from one fleet operation to the next depending on the composition, age, and application of equipment in a fleet. However, the primary goal of every parts operation is to maintain a sufficient inventory in order to fill a high percentage of part requests immediately while sustaining a high part turn-over rate. This can be a difficult task, due to the logistics with seasonal parts, vehicle and equipment replacements, poor vendor performance, cumbersome procurement procedures, insufficient warehousing space, inadequate staffing levels, an antiquated information system, and a wide array of other factors. Hence, efforts to reduce a parts operation's costs and maintain an inventory to sustain an acceptable fill-rate can often time seem to be diametrically opposed.
As previous fleet managers and as professional consultants we have a lot of industry experience and knowledge of the best practices in parts management. We understand the issues that affect the availability of inventory, part turn-over, stocking levels, reordering points, minimum and maximum levels, and the spectrum of other elements that influence a parts operation. We also understand matters associated with procurement policies and procedures. In fact, a principal consultant in our firm previously served as a procurement agent for a local government in Florida for several years.
Some of our parts management consulting services include:
Electronic Procurement Strategies
Parts Availability and Stocking Level Review
Parts Management Reengineering
Parts Management Reviews
Procurement Procedures Assessments
Vendor / Contractor Performance Reviews
Parts Warehouse Layout and Design
Inventory Valuation Services
Parts Management Outsourcing
Fleet Replacement
The replacement of vehicles and equipment in a timely manner is a problem for many fleet operations. The decision to replacement equipment is often driven by the fiscal health of the organization, breakdown or failure of the asset, or some other unpredictable factor. However, a proper fleet replacement program can provide both fleet reliability and fiscal stability for a fleet operation and to the general organization.
Our consultants have been providing fleet replacement planning services for decades, which is why dozens of fleet operations have contracted with us over the years. Whether you utilize ad hoc appropriations, lease-purchase, debt financing, or a hybrid approach our fleet consultant team can assist you in developing a long-term replacement strategy. Moreover, as part of our fleet replacement planning services we will model several funding and purchasing approaches so that you have the quantitative information to justify the final funding approach.
Some of our fleet replacement consulting services and solutions include:
Development of a Fleet Replacement Fund
Review of Existing Replacement Plan Criteria
Multi-Year Fleet Replacement Planning Services
Audit of Fleet Replacement Fund Balance and Utilization
Develop Fleet Replacement Cycles and Scheduling Services
Establish Alternative Funding Sources for Timely Replacement
Lease Versus Buy Analysis
Employee Mileage Reimbursement Feasibility / Replacement Program Alternatives
Vehicle and Equipment Replacement Planning Software
Inventory Valuation Services
General Fleet Operations
Our group of fleet maintenance consultants frequently are contracted to provide general operation reviews. Perhaps this is due to the value that we produce as a result of our findings. We often hear about studies, such as a strategic business plan, that our consulting professionals performed nearly a decade ago are still frequently referenced and utilized in management decisions. We believe that this is the best testament to our ability to achieve provide high quality, valuable consultant services. Moreover, virtually no other firm in the fleet industry can provide our wide array of general fleet consulting services.
Some of our general fleet maintenance consulting services include:
Business Process Reengineering
Fleet Management Training
Operation Best Practice Reviews
Operation Competitiveness Assessments
Organizational Realignment
Policy and Procedure Development
Staffing Level Assessments
Strategic Business Planning
Managed Competition Facilitation
Vendor Contract Negotiations
Vendor Contract Reviews
Industry Standards and Benchmarking Studies
Performance Measurement Solutions
Fleet Maintenance Outsourcing Consulting Services
Fleet maintenance outsourcing is a process that most people view as an all or nothing process. In some cases this is true. However, we often find fleet operations that are very efficient at specific services, such as preventive maintenance. In such an instance an appropriate solution may be a hybrid approach - outsourcing specific activities and services of a fleet operation. Nonetheless, the choice of either outsourcing part or an entire operation is not an easy one. It often times requires the review of an impartial party that understands when an operation should be outsourced, how it should be done, and the contractual pitfalls that can result in unforeseen charges and financial liability.
Mercury is uniquely qualified to provide you with outsourcing consulting services, because we have worked for many years with both internally managed and outsourced fleet operations, negotiated several outsourcing maintenance contracts for clients, and provided managed competition services.
Some of our outsourcing consulting services include:
Managed Competition Facilitation
Outsourcing Contract Negotiations
Outsourcing Feasibility Reviews
Outsourcing Facilitation
Competitveness Assessment
Bid and RFP Preparation
Activity Based Costing
Mechanic Rate Development
Target and Non-Target Pricing
Fleet Maintenance Information Services (FMIS)
One of the most significant changes in the fleet industry has been a veritable explosion of quantitative data. The sources of these data are multitude: fleet maintenance information systems, fuel management systems, ERP and financial management systems, professional association databases, the Internet, GPS and AVL solutions, web-based reporting engines, ad hoc report writers, and document imaging systems.
The increased availability of data on the fleet and the fleet operations has placed significant pressure on fleet managers and staff to maintain and produce a wide array of management information for clients, financial and auditing departments, executives, elected officials, and the general public. A major challenge for fleet managers has been and will continue to be the struggle to keep these entities sufficiently informed in a timely manner. Some of the best fleet managers in the industry have addressed this requirement by implementing proactive processes and solutions that push information to stakeholders on a regular schedule. Push technology can automatically deliver key management decision making information to email accounts, printers, fax machines, pagers, PDAs, and other communication devices. An increasing number of fleet management organizations are using their own web sites as a means of distributing invoices, reservation confirmations, recall notices, and the like to their customers.
As a leading provider of fleet consulting services and business solutions Mercury is uniquely qualified to assist fleet organizations with their information technology needs - from A to Z. Our fleet consulting professionals have assisted several clients in the selection, implementation, and maintenance of new and replacement fleet information systems. We have also reengineered local and wide-area networks, implemented firewalls and security solutions, and provided ad hoc reporting solutions and fleet information systems. Learn more about our fleet technology solutions.
In addition to offering local services to fleet organizations, we also provide application hosting services. Our hosting service allows a fleet operation to implement leading edge business tools (e.g. fleet information system, ad hoc reporting, on-line consulting, and much more) without the upfront cost and time of implementing a system locally. Users pay a fixed monthly subscription fee to access these resources, while we manage server replacements, application upgrades, security and antivirus countermeasures, and data backups. Learn more about our hosting solutions at http://www.mercury-assoc.com/solutions.asp.
Some of our fleet maintenance information services include:
Application Hosting - Multiple Fleet Systems Available
Ad Hoc Report Training
Application Training
Applied Fleet Principals Training
Windows Training
Custom Report Development
Data Integrity Audits
Fleet Information System Implementation
Fleet Information System RFP Development and Replacement Planning
Fleet Information System Selection
Thin Client Design, Implementation, and Maintenance
Implementation of LAN / WAN / Wireless Solutions
Application Hosting Services - Business Applications
System and Technology Audits
Implementation Quality Assurance Review
Security Topology Review
ERP Interface Design and Development
Fit - Gap Analysis ( e.g. ERP versus fleet information systems )
E-commerce
Fuel System Implementation and Integration
Fuel and Fleet System Troubleshooting
Fuel Interface Design
Electronic Equipment Repair Manual Integration
Electronic Equipment Repair Manual Hosting
Automated Vehicle Location ( AVL ) Solutions
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For further information about our fleet maintenance consulting services or a fleet consultant please contact us at:
Mercury Associates, Inc.
Fleet Maintenance Consultant Services
7701 Shady Brook Lane
Gaithersburg, Maryland 20879
voice/fax: 240 631 6780
email: contactme@mercury-assoc.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Website Links
http://www.directionsmag.com/companies/Mercury_Fleet_Consultants_-_Vehicle_and_Equipment_Management_Consulting/
http://www.directionsmag.com/companies/Mercury_Fleet_Management_Consulting/
http://www.directionsmag.com/companies/Mercury_Fleet_Management_Consultants/
http://www.directionsmag.com/companies/Mercury_Fleet_Management_Consultant/
http://mercury-assoc.blogspot.com
http://fleetmanagementconsultants.blogspot.com
http://www.mercury-assoc.com
http://www.mercury-assoc.com/services.asp
http://www.mercury-assoc.com/aboutus.asp
http://www.mercury-assoc.com/solutions.asp
http://bbs.mercury-assoc.com
http://www.mercury-assoc.com/resources
http://www.mercury-assoc.net
http://www.mercury-assoc.biz
http://www.mercury-assoc.info
