Depending on the size of the organization, a government office with at least one service vehicle has one person in charge of the “motorpool.” This could be the office administrative officer, the head of office or a public officer called the motorpool supervisor. The motorpool supervisor is not an ordinary member of the team. He is a public manager. He is both a transport manager and a fleet manager.

     As transport manager, the motorpool supervisor is first of all a trip coordinator. He may or may not be assisted by a dispatcher, but he is primarily responsible for scheduling of trips and assignment of vehicle-driver-passenger combinations, depending on the number of vehicles, volume of requests, availability of drivers, distribution of passengers and destinations for the day, and personal idiosyncrasies of requesting passengers.

     Scheduling of trips is not a mere clerical task. It requires judgment, planning, organizing, directing, controlling, coordinating, and a good amount of political will. Scheduling of trip requires judgment because some trips may be combined into one either because two or more requests refer to the same destination or they are on the way of each other. Hence, the motorpool supervisor is expected to be an expert on value for money and productivity as measured in terms of number of requests served per trip, per day or per liter. Scheduling of trips requires planning because this is the only way to know whether requests for the use of vehicles may be served or not. Without planning, a driver-vehicle combination may not be used at all. Scheduling of trips is a planning activity where requests are served over a judicious distribution of trips throughout the day using available human and physical resources. In doing so, it is imperative for the motorpool supervisor to possess good coordinating skills so that requests are served, trips are scheduled, and passengers know why other employees are joining them on the same vehicle. Sometimes, coordinating skills are not enough to ensure proper distribution of trips in the most productive way. This happens when the passengers in question are not mere rank and file but are members of the middle and higher management. Some high-ranking personalities (let us not call them managers, much less CESOs) may not be open to the idea of sharing the same vehicle in going to the same destination, especially when faced with the possibility of losing one’s transportation allowance for the day. This is where the situation requires the motorpool supervisor to possess a healthy blend of political will and organizational sensitivity. With all due respect to the position of the passengers, the rule of order must prevail.

     The assignment of the right driver-vehicle-passenger combination is another task that requires judgment, foresight, organizational sensitivity and political will. Generally, it is advisable to maintain a permanent driver-vehicle tandem in order to instill a professional sense of ownership and concern on the part of the driver for the vehicle he is assigned to. Experience shows that the economic life of a vehicle is maximized, if not extended, when the same driver is assigned to a vehicle all throughout the life of the vehicle. This is however, again, not a mere clerical act, and is therefore not as simple as it appears to be. While it is most of the time the number of passengers that determines the passenger vehicle combination, the choice of driver may or may not be in accordance with the ideal vehicle-driver tandem. A driver may be preferred on account of knowledge of the destination, skills in reaching the destination at the shortest time or attitude towards overtime work. In this case, the motorpool supervisor must be adept at attitude modification, skills enhancement and knowledge improvement, as well.

     The transport manager is also a human resources manager. He is primarily responsible for the recruitment, selection, performance management, career development and discipline of drivers, mechanics and dispatchers, in coordination with the agency’s personnel officer. In the recruitment of his staff, the motorpool supervisor combine’s the agency’s goals with the drivers, mechanics and dispatchers that can help the agency reach its goals. He does not just take in anybody from the streets who has a professional driver’s license; he also discerns whether the knowledge, perspectives, skills and attitudes of a prospective driver, mechanic or dispatcher may complement organizational goals or contradict them. Fulfilling minimum qualification standards is just not enough, so he must guide the personnel officer in making the right assessment of candidates for these positions.

     The motorpool supervisor, as HR manager, has to take some risks in projecting that a well-selected pool of drivers, mechanics and dispatchers shall deliver the desired performance outputs. These projections are then compared with actual performance to guide the motorpool supervisor in recommending the appropriate rewards and disciplinary measures to concerned personnel. Sometimes, rewards may be employed in the form of training interventions. Poor performance, the manager in the motorpool supervisor knows, is not always addressed through disciplinary action.

     The motorpool supervisor knows best what is good for his staff, and so he recommends to the personnel officer the appropriate career development tools for the drivers, mechanics and dispatchers. Since most drivers are not qualified for higher positions, they can only look forward to better skills through training and a sense of greater belonging to the organization courtesy of the manager, called the motorpool supervisor.

     In assigning drivers to vehicles, passengers or destinations, the motorpool supervisor needs to achieve an agreeable combination that shall result in a successful trip. Despite the tried and tested rule on maintaining a permanent driver-vehicle assignment, motorpool supervisor may sometimes need to take the risk of breaking the rule as a human resources management tool. Not all vehicles in the fleet are new, and sometimes drivers of old vehicles that are starting to break down start to break down themselves, emotionally and physically. Faced with the dilemma between rule and performance, the motorpool supervisor rules in favor of uplifting the morale of a few, thereby preventing the disintegration of his team’s esprit de corps.

     Transport management is not the only role of the motorpool supervisor. He is also a fleet manager. In order to ensure his success in transporting passengers to their destinations, he needs to manage not only trips or persons, but the physical resources as well. The first job of the fleet manager is to ensure proper maintenance of the vehicles. Proper maintenance assures good service delivery and is in accordance with sound management of resources. In assessing the appropriate maintenance approach, the motorpool supervisor requires judgment and discernment in classifying whether a vehicle requires preventive or corrective maintenance, as the case may be.

     As fleet manager, the motorpool supervisor aims to prevent repairs through a comprehensive preventive maintenance program. The motorpool supervisor then acts as a program manager, or directs a third party to manage the program for him. He may integrate a corrective maintenance component to account for deviations occurring within the preventive maintenance program, or this may be instituted as a separate program if the agency has several old vehicles that need to be “serviced” or repaired every now and then.

     In considering old vehicle for corrective maintenance, the motorpool supervisor needs to exercise due judgment and discretion whether a vehicle must be repaired or disposed of, based on several factors as provided for under existing rules on accounting, auditing and asset disposal. While a vehicle is economically repairable, and until it is disposed of, it forms part of the motorpool supervisor’s property management and inventory program. Hence, the motorpool supervisor also acts as a property manager. As property manager, he plans, coordinates and organizes supplies and equipment, and does parallel work with the agency’s property officer.

     Given the best-maintained vehicles, the motorpool supervisor also ensures that they are not only road worthy, but road authorized as well. He ensures that all vehicles are duly insured and registered in accordance with law. Like trip coordinating and assigning of drivers, insuring and registering vehicles requires more than a clerical act. It requires good networking skills, in addition to planning, organizing and coordinating skills. The schedule of insurance and registration of vehicles needs to be well planned to prevent late registration and fines. Sometimes, even a well-planned schedule of activities need to be supplemented with networking in order to ensure that employees of GSIS and LTO do not inadvertently lay obstacles to the plan.

     Finally, the motorpool supervisor as fleet manager also takes the role of security and safety manager. He sets control measures and implements these in coordination with the agency’s security group to prevent the loss of wheels, lights, alternators and the like, the absence of which could be dangerous to the driver and passengers, not to mention its deleterious effect on the motorpool supervisor’s pocket and 201 file.

     My classmate is not from the Office of the President of the Philippines, where a Director IV (SG-28) heads the Motorpool. Chances are he expects all these to be performed by a Motorpool Supervisor I (SG-8) or II (SG-9). No RATA. No EME.

     Any takers?

__________

     This article was written, inspired by the inputs of the integrated Executive Leadership Program of the Philippine Career Executive Service, and published in this site first!