The threat of coronavirus is likely to have a “fundamental” effect on the rate of adoption of mobility solutions by fleets, believes FleetCheck.
Peter Golding, managing director at the fleet software specialist, explained that the issue was simple – most mobility solutions relied on multi-user use of assets at a time when sharing of almost any asset could lead to the virus being much more widely distributed.
“The mobility products that have been promoted to fleets over the last few years as an alternative to existing corporate travel methods are fundamentally designed to get more out of existing transport assets – whether that is car sharing, ride sharing, access to pool vehicles, or increased use of public transport.
“In a world that is coping with coronavirus, all of these options become much more problematic. They are inevitably much riskier and potentially dangerous than the one driver, one vehicle company car or van model that they seek to replace.”
Peter said that this would unavoidably have an impact on which mobility solutions were considered viable by fleets and would become widely adopted over the next few years.
“It seems to us that coronavirus will have a fundamental effect on the mobility sector, at least this side of a vaccine or cure for the virus. Whichever risk management measures you adopt to offset the dangers of any form of sharing of transport, issues remain.
“There may instead be a fundamental shift in how fleets now view the future away from the mixed-solution vision of mobility that has been widely promoted in recent years.”
