Why Right-Sizing Your Fleet Is About Much More Than Vehicle Counts

This article is based on a recent episode of The Fleet Success Show podcast.
Watch the full episode here: 

Fleet managers across the public sector and enterprise landscape are under constant pressure to cut costs, improve fleet availability, and justify in-house maintenance programs. For years, the go-to solution has been traditional right-sizing: eliminate underused vehicles to reduce operating expenses.

But that outdated mindset is holding you back. According to fleet consultant and Connect 2025 keynote speaker Tony Yankovich, true right-sizing is about aligning your workload, workforce, and workplace. This is the next evolution of modern fleet strategy.

In this new model, it's not just about numbers—it's about operational readiness, technician efficiency, and long-term sustainability. This shift is critical for fleet managers who want to proactively minimize downtime, defend their in-house operations from outsourcing, and build a high-performing fleet that meets the demands of the future.

The New Right-Sizing Model: Workload, Workforce, Workplace

Think of your fleet as a three-legged stool. Each leg—your workload, workforce, and workplace—must be in balance. When even one element is off, your operation begins to wobble.

1. Workload: Quantify What Actually Needs to Get Done

Right-sizing starts by understanding the true maintenance burden of your fleet. That means going beyond simple vehicle counts to evaluate the time, resources, and skill required to maintain each asset.

This is where Asset Equivalent Units (AEUs) shine. Built off decades of real-world data, AEUs allow you to normalize and compare different asset types against a baseline (typically an admin sedan at 1.0 AEU). For example:

• Half-ton pickup: 1.5 AEUs
• Backhoe: 4.5 AEUs
• Police cruiser: 2.0–2.5 AEUs (depending on use)

Using AEUs, fleet managers can measure the actual labor hours required to maintain their assets and plan staffing, scheduling, and budget allocation more effectively—a feature made even more powerful when paired with fleet maintenance management software like RTA Fleet360.

2. Workforce: Align Labor with Demand

Headcount doesn’t equal capacity. Yankovich demonstrated how technicians are often pulled away from core maintenance duties to handle parts, answer service requests, or support other departments. That means a fleet with seven techs may only have five or six full-time equivalents (FTEs) focused on turning wrenches.

Using RTA's fleet maintenance system, you can:

• Track wrench time vs indirect labor
• Monitor technician productivity
• Compare actual work hours to maintenance demand

Beyond analysis, Tony promotes the concept of slack time—purposefully freeing up tech time for innovation, process improvement, and skill development. Inspired by companies like Google (Gmail) and 3M (Post-It Notes), this approach fuels operational creativity and morale.

3. Workplace: Design Matters More Than You Think

A 300-foot walk from a bay to a parts counter? That’s a football field of wasted time and productivity. Facility design and space allocation often go overlooked, but they directly impact your fleet’s performance.

Whether you're using in-house shops or outsourced vendors, you need to:

• Map your shop layout for adjacency and efficiency
• Allocate appropriate space for ready line, deadline, and upfitting
• Ensure technician safety and EV compliance (e.g., 10- to 100-foot buffer zones)

Tools like RTA’s government fleet management software help you optimize workflows, manage parts and inventory, and avoid the inefficiencies that poor facility planning introduces.

What’s in It for You?

If you're a fleet leader tasked with reducing costs without hurting performance, this new approach to right-sizing gives you a defensible, data-driven strategy to:

• Improve fleet availability and uptime
• Justify in-house maintenance programs
• Maximize technician productivity and minimize walk time
• Create a safer, more functional workspace
• Plan for future growth and evolving vehicle technology (e.g., EVs)

This is about more than cutting assets. It’s about optimizing your operation holistically. And with a fleet maintenance management system like RTA Fleet360, you gain the insight, structure, and automation to do exactly that.

Final Word: The Future Belongs to Aligned Fleets

The fleets that thrive over the next decade will not be the ones who simply slash vehicle counts. They'll be the ones that embrace full-spectrum right-sizing: aligning workload, workforce, and workplace in a unified strategy.

With the right metrics, the right mindset, and the right fleet maintenance software, your operation can unlock efficiency, safeguard in-house expertise, and achieve sustainable fleet success.