Day 1 — Fleet Operations Fundamentals
Module 1: Fleet Composition and Total Cost of Ownership
- Fleet composition planning: leasing versus owning, and the total cost of ownership over a vehicle's life
- Vehicle selection by mission type: payload, terrain, road conditions, and distance
- Higher-capacity and performance-based vehicle combinations, and when they pay off
- Alternative drivetrains: where electric and other low-emission vehicles fit, and the limits of range, charging, and cost
- Replacement planning, resale value, and fleet disposal
- Practical Exercise: compare lease and own options for a given mission using a total cost of ownership worksheet
Module 2: Driver Management, Road Safety, and Compliance
- Driver selection, licensing, and professional driving permits, and the operator's responsibilities for them
- Driving hours, rest, and fatigue management: national rules, operator licence conditions, and company policy
- Road safety management systems: the Road Transport Management System (RTMS, SANS 1395) and ISO 39001
- Safety KPIs: harsh braking, speeding, incidents, and near misses
- Incident reporting and investigation, and driver coaching
- Traffic fines and administrative systems for operators: linking fines to the company, nominating drivers, and avoiding vehicles being held up by unpaid fines
- Driver wellness, medical fitness, and substance control
- Case Study: a fleet that reduced incidents by changing how it monitored and coached its drivers, and what it measured
Module 3: Fuel, Tyres, Maintenance, and Telematics
- Fuel management: consumption tracking, route-based optimisation, fuel cards, and anti-theft measures
- Tyre management: pressure, rotation, retreading, and cost per kilometre
- Preventive maintenance scheduling and workshop coordination, and when to use in-house or outsourced workshops
- Spare parts and downtime: how to reduce vehicles off the road
- Telematics and GPS data: what to measure daily, weekly, and monthly
- Turning telematics data into decisions, while respecting driver privacy and the protection of personal information
- Practical Exercise: analyse a sample telematics and fuel data set to find the three biggest sources of waste
Day 2 — Logistics and Supply Chain Integration
Module 4: Daily Fleet Scheduling, Dispatch, and Routing
- Designing the daily fleet schedule: balancing vehicle capacity, driver availability, and delivery windows
- Dispatch practice: job allocation, load consolidation, and managing urgent changes
- Route planning software versus dynamic re-routing for last-mile delivery
- Planning for local realities: congestion, restricted truck hours, road conditions, border queues, and security risks
- Inventory visibility: how stock levels affect fleet dispatch decisions
- Practical Exercise: build a one-day schedule for a mixed fleet with competing delivery windows, then adjust it when two jobs change
Module 5: The Warehouse-to-Vehicle Interface and Load Control
- Warehouse-to-vehicle handoff: loading efficiency and loading bay planning
- Load securement, load distribution, and the risks and penalties of overloading
- Cargo damage, shortages, and theft: prevention, seals, and proof of delivery
- Delivery documentation, and electronic proof of delivery
- Linking stock systems, warehouse, and transport so that dispatch decisions use accurate information
- Case Study: a distribution operation that lost time and money at the loading bay, and how the process was redesigned
Module 6: Reverse Logistics, Third-Party Providers, and Transport Mode Choice
- Reverse logistics: managing returns, waste, and empty backhauls
- Third-party logistics (3PL) coordination: choosing providers, contracts, service level agreements (SLAs), and handover points
- Managing outsourced and owner-driver capacity during peaks
- Road, rail, and intermodal options: when moving freight to rail or combining modes makes sense, and the risks of each
- Key corridors and ports in Africa, and the typical delays on them
- Practical Exercise: draft the key SLA measures and handover points for a transport contract
Day 3 — Project Coordination for Operations
Module 7: From Project Plan to Daily Fleet Tasks
- Project coordination basics: scope, schedule, cost, and the role of the operations coordinator
- Translating project work breakdown structures (WBS) into daily fleet and logistics tasks
- Resource levelling: matching vehicle types and driver skills to project phases
- Planning deliveries for site constraints: access, permits, laydown space, and working times
- Practical Exercise: break a project work package into a delivery schedule, and level the vehicle and driver demand across the weeks
Module 8: Roles, Milestones, and the Critical Path
- Using RACI charts to clarify roles between fleet, logistics, and project teams
- Gantt charts and simple schedule tools for operations teams
- Milestone tracking: how delivery delays affect project critical paths
- Communication between the site, the depot, and the supplier: daily reporting and escalation
- A short orientation to current project management guidance, including the PMBOK Guide, Eighth Edition, and its performance domains
- Case Study: a construction or mining project in which late deliveries pushed back a critical milestone, and how the team traced the cause
Module 9: Budget Alignment, Cost Control, and Contracts
- Budget alignment: separating operational operating costs (OPEX) from project capital costs (CAPEX)
- Costing fleet usage for a project: cost per kilometre, cost per trip, and cost per tonne
- Managing variations and urgent changes without losing control of the budget
- Currency, fuel price, and tariff movements: building contingency into transport costs
- Contract basics for transport and equipment hire on projects
- Practical Exercise: cost a project's transport plan, then test it against a fuel price rise and a two-week delay
Day 4 — Risk Management, Compliance, and Contingency Planning
Module 10: Operational Risk and Contingency Planning
- Common failure modes: vehicle breakdowns, driver shortages, road closures, strikes, floods, and unrest
- Risk logs for operations: identifying, rating, and assigning actions
- Building a contingency response plan for the critical first 24 hours of a disruption on an active project
- Responding to real-time disruptions without derailing the project budget: breakdown, route closure, and urgent client change
- Backup resources: standby vehicles, subcontractors, and alternative routes
- Practical Exercise: complete a risk log and a first-day response plan for a project facing a road closure and a vehicle breakdown on the same day
Module 11: Insurance, Permits, and Cross-Border Movement
- Insurance for vehicles, cargo, and liability: what is covered, what is excluded, and how to claim
- Operating permits, including cross-border road transport permits and abnormal-load permits
- Cross-border documentation: consignment notes and road waybills (including the CMR where trade links to Europe), customs declarations, transit documents, and carnets
- Transit regimes, regional guarantees, and cargo tracking, using the East African Single Customs Territory and electronic cargo tracking as an example
- Regional third-party motor insurance schemes for vehicles crossing borders
- Border posts: reducing delays through preparation, one-stop border posts, and trusted-trader programmes
- Case Study: a cross-border consignment held at the border because of document errors, and how it could have been avoided
Module 12: High-Value and Hazardous Cargo, and Incident Command
- Safety risk assessments for high-value or hazardous cargo
- Dangerous goods by road: classification, packaging, vehicle and driver requirements, emergency information, and the SANS 10228, 10229, 10231, and 10232 series
- Securing high-value cargo: route planning, vehicle tracking, convoy discipline, and hijacking prevention
- Humanitarian and convoy operations: movement control, security, and coordination with partners
- Incident command: who does what when a project shipment is compromised
- Communication in an incident: the driver, the control room, the client, the insurer, and the authorities
- Practical Exercise: role-play an incident command call after a compromised shipment, with a clear role for each person
Day 5 — Performance, Continuous Improvement, and Technology
Module 13: KPIs and Dashboards
- Key performance indicators (KPIs): on-time delivery (OTD), cost per kilometre, and vehicle utilisation rate
- Further measures: delivery in full, fuel efficiency, downtime, claims, and safety incidents
- Dashboard design for operations reviews: the daily huddle versus the monthly board report
- Data quality: making sure the numbers can be trusted
- Using KPIs to hold teams, 3PLs, and suppliers to account
- Practical Exercise: design a one-page dashboard for a daily huddle and one for a monthly review
Module 14: Root Cause Analysis and Lean Logistics
- Root cause analysis for recurring delays or cost overruns: the 5 Whys and cause-and-effect diagrams
- Lean logistics: eliminating waiting time, rework, and excess handling
- Process mapping from order to delivery, and finding waste
- Embedding improvement: small trials, standard work, and after-action reviews
- Case Study: a recurring late-delivery problem traced to its root cause, and the changes that fixed it
Module 15: Technology Roadmap and Action Plan
- Technology roadmap: when to adopt a transport management system (TMS), a fleet management system (FMS), or integrated ERP tools
- Selecting and implementing systems: requirements, vendor questions, data migration, and user adoption
- Low-cost options for small fleets, and the use of AI and analytics in routing, maintenance, and risk prediction
- Planning the shift to electric and other low-emission vehicles: pilot routes, charging, and costs
- Personal and team action plan: three changes to make in the first month, with owners and dates
- Course evaluation
