About Renee’s Limos
When an ambitious lady named Renee bought a limo a tad over three decades ago, she was primarily focused on the wedding industry. Little did she know, her modest venture would one day grow into a diverse fleet of 19 meticulously maintained vehicles — including sedans, SUVs, stretch limousines and coaches — providing a smooth ride and unforgettable experiences for groups of all types.
Renee’s Limos leverages its 30 years of experience to deliver luxury and elegance for a wide range of customers and occasions. With a focus on personalized service, this popular transportation business caters to weddings, corporate events, proms, brewery tours and more, offering customized packages tailored to each client’s unique requirements.
The Challenge
The role of fleet manager for a company like Renee’s Limos varies a bit from that of a traditional trucking business. When you carry passengers versus freight, for example, hours of service are handled in a completely different way.
On the other hand, processes for inspections, trip sheets and ensuring all equipment is up to DOT standards are largely the same. This is what fleet manager Lawrence Lehn handles on a day-to-day basis.
Prior to Whip Around, that included weekends.
“The way we used to do business with paperwork, this was a seven-day-a-week job,” Lehn said. “Because on Saturday, our busiest day, somebody would have to come in and go through the paperwork, find and organize all the written reports.”
This situation presented a couple challenges. For one, the reactive approach made it difficult to predict the amount of repair work needed, service hours and potential downtime. If defects were discovered, Lehn needed to hunt down a mechanic over the weekend — or, as was often the case, do the work himself.
“Our in-house mechanic is not always available; he’s part-time. So if we have headlights out or something like that, someone has to come in and make those repairs as soon as possible,” he said. “It’s always up to the fleet manager to make sure things get done.”
Even once the paperwork was organized, it wasn’t always easy to determine which assets required immediate attention. Fleet managers who are still operating with pen and paper are likely familiar with this frustration.
“The owner’s biggest pet peeve, when paper inspections are done and they have their little check boxes, was that straight line down through all the boxes,” Lehn said. “So it’s like, okay, obviously this was pencil whipping.”
The Solution
A few years ago, the owner returned from a trade show in Las Vegas and suggested Lehn look into Whip Around. It didn’t take long to determine that the platform offered solutions to many of his challenges.
Going digital eliminates headaches of paper
Once Whip Around was implemented across the organization, Lehn started each day already aware of everything that occurred during trips the previous night. The time savings alone was invaluable.
“I didn’t have to go through trip sheets and look at any deficiencies or anything like that. So that streamlines a lot of my morning, and it also helps my weekends of course,” he said. “I’ll get an email at night sometimes saying that something is wrong, and I’ll know in the morning if it’s something that has to come in for DOT standards, or if the vehicle has to go down.”
Inspections improved dramatically as well. Not only has the Whip Around app eliminated pencil whipping, but the mandatory, walk-around photo capture feature has paid big dividends.
“Making sure the drivers go out and take pictures of every corner of the vehicle — in our case, it’s front and rear, two from each side, one from the center pointing forward, one from the center pointing back,” Lehn said. “Whip Around ensuring that we’re getting proper inspections has been really nice.”
Streamlining fleet maintenance processes
In addition to using paper for inspections in their pre-Whip Around days, Renee’s Limos relied on Excel spreadsheets and manually inputting data to keep operations running. With more than a dozen vehicles and countless responsibilities, preventative maintenance tended to fall through the cracks at times.
“It’s been really helpful for me remembering things rather than writing 100 notes on my desk,” Lehn said. “If it’s in Whip Around, it sends me an email. It stays in the defects section until it’s cleared out.”
The ability to set alerts for important maintenance activities has proven to be a game changer as well. For example, prior to Whip Around, Lehn needed to remember to schedule oil changes; now, they’re automated with Whip Around according to the mileage tracked per each driver.
“I see, okay, the oil change is due on these vehicles,” he said. “Emergency hatches on motor coaches have to be checked every 90 days.”
“I added that to Whip Around as an every-three-month service, and I get a message saying ‘hey, this is due.’ Our DOT inspections are annual, and they’re in Whip Around now too.”
A user-friendly, driver-friendly tool
Some out-of-the-box solutions aren’t a great fit for companies with unique business models. Whip Around’s customizable inspection forms, however, make things easier for both drivers and fleet managers.
“It’s really operator friendly, being able to adapt inspection forms to include the cooler doors and things like that where it’s not something on a standard card,” Lehn said.
By creating vehicle condition report style inspection forms that require pictures of damage on vehicles, they now have documentation on the date of each inspection concerning any damage that appeared.
“Three weeks later, if somebody goes, hey, there’s a new scratch on here, I can say nope, that’s not new, it’s here in this photo,” he said. “So making those reports customizable has really helped, especially if you get creative.”
Getting buy-in from drivers to adopt new tools can be tough in certain situations, but Lehn has found that it doesn’t take long for drivers to realize how beneficial the tool is to them.
“It hasn’t been hard to sell to the drivers,” he said. “It keeps the vehicles safe. It keeps them on the road. It ensures the best client impact.”
Boost Your Fleet Inspection Process with Whip Around
If paper processes and inefficient maintenance systems are making fleet operation and DOT compliance more difficult than it needs to be, then it’s time to schedule a Whip Around demo or start a free trial today.
