Key Facts:
| Organisation: GemLife | Vehicle Types: Passenger vehicles, SUVs, Utes, Minibuses and Motorhomes |
| Fleet Size: 100+ | Website: https://www.GemLife.com.au/ |
| Locations: QLD, NSW and VIC | LBM Products: Logbooks, Pool Booking System, Fuel Reporting, Registration Reminders, Vehicle Locator |
“We saw a benefit of the LBM system to many departments at GemLife, not just finance. That was important to us from the start.”
Kishan Ramjeet, Financial Controller at GemLife
GemLife is one of Australia’s fastest growing developers of luxury over-50s lifestyle resorts with 10 communities currently across Australia.
With new sites rapidly developing, GemLife recognised a need to transition many of its existing systems and processes to help prepare for scale, including management of their 100+ light commercial fleet that’s used on their construction sites.
In 2022, GemLife sought after a complete fleet solution that could streamline their fleet management and improve fleet efficiencies.
Business growth calls for fleet operations overhaul
Previously, GemLife’s fleet management was decentralised, an expected outcome for companies that experience fast growth. Drivers were managing most of their vehicle operations themselves including servicing, paper logbooks, using credit cards for fuel payments and a paper-based booking system for their pool fleet.
These manual processes were becoming more complex with extra administration work required from the GemLife team. Each site operated differently, and as such, fuel transactions were hard to reconcile and reimburse, reliability around vehicles bookings was tentative and the overall effort to get information around FBT time and visibility on the fleet’s servicing schedules was too time consuming to maintain.
GemLife’s Financial Controller, Kishan Ramjeet quickly recognised the need to improve their approach to fleet management, “Management of the light commercial fleet was identified as a part of the business where we could become more efficient. We knew what improvements could be made, but needed a system to centralise the data, help streamline operations and ensure proper workflow between teams and the drivers and also set up GPS in vehicles.”
Adoption of LBM system led top-down
“We found an all-in-one system with LBM. The platform stores all our vehicle details, servicing and rego reminders and workflows. It also comes with an integrated bookings and telematics system and is perfect for a company that owns their fleet,” says Ramjeet.
Leading by example, GemLife’s Chief Executive Officer, Adrian Puljich, was one of the first to install the GPS devices and use the system, recognising the advantages of being able to better understand fleet use and easily access live odometer readings. Five heads of departments at GemLife also tested and championed the booking system before implementing with all drivers.
Drivers were introduced to the system soon after which saw high acceptance rates across their staff, largely attributed to LBM’s easy-to-use system plus clear communications.
“We were well supported by LBM who provided driver communications and training, they helped us define rules and parameters, such that our policies could be incorporate in the reporting. LBM’s system also has the smarts to report using trip masking, so drivers are in control of their own privacy based on their trip classifications. It all led to a very smooth rollout.”
Kishan Ramjeet, Financial Controller at GemLife
One system, multiple benefits
Fuel, servicing, registration and vehicle info all centralised
One year in, many departments at GemLife now use the system daily, including finance, fleet and administration teams.
“With all our fuel data in the one place, we can see consumption trends across the fleet to manage this and the old reimbursement process is no longer needed. Registration reminders are also automated as are notifications for vehicle servicing, so it’s great we can see all this live, while each of the sites also have their own access to manage their teams.”
“LBM’s exception reporting also means that any use of the fleet which is outside of policy will automatically get flagged and because of this, our light commercial fleet basically maintains itself,” says Ramjeet.
GemLife has also been able to identify underutilised vehicles and have accordingly implemented strategies to optimise their use including moving them to other locations or reallocating them to new staff when they start vs automatically purchasing new vehicles.
In-built booking system
One of the first products to be rolled out was the pool booking system. With a low number of pool vehicles, GemLife recognised this as an easy win.
Drivers found the booking system easy to use and picked it up quickly with little to no training, and this continues to be the basis for all vehicle sharing in the pool fleet.
“LBM has provided a simple and intuitive system for pool car bookings. I personally use our pool cars every week, so having a system like this in place has been a significant improvement in reliability of the pool fleet and is essential for my work.”
Taylor Scott, Videography Manager at GemLife
More cars, more logbooks, but less admin
The GemLife team has also been benefiting from the high classification compliance – greater than 95% – and accurate reporting on business and personal use all with less administration work.
“The LBM logbook app does almost all the work. Staff are reminded by the app to classify each trip which takes no time at all. It’s much better than having to manually enter in each trip as we did previously. Then all this information is consolidated into a report which is conveniently in the right format for FBT reporting.”
Megan Hoh, Senior Financial Accountant at GemLife
Asset tracking for motorhomes
One of the perks of living at GemLife, are the hireable motorhomes offered to their residents. These motorhomes are used by the residents to travel to their desired destinations. GemLife has also opted to install LBM devices in the motorhomes to give GemLife customer service teams visibility where the motorhomes are being taken by residents.
“Having trackers for the motorhomes was not originally part of the requirements, however using them has revealed unanticipated benefits for marketing and customer service. Everything from capturing popular routes, average distances, having vehicle locations, should anyone ever need assistance, are just some of the advantages that we have grown to become accustomed to with LBM’s system.”
Andrew Dover, GemLife’s Explore by GemLife Coordinator
Supporting sustainability in new developments and fleet operations
GemLife Director of Sustainability, Renewables & Innovation Mark Langdon has said that in line with the company’s sustainable ideas and practices, all new country clubs, would be EV-charging capable.
At the same time, since implementing the LBM system, GemLife has been able to measure and report carbon emissions attributable to the fleet and is excited about starting the planning for any future electrification to the fleet using all the data available in the system.
What’s next?
After successfully completing the first phase of the fleet management journey, phase two will see GemLife installing an in-car KeyPad into vehicles and the potential electrification of the fleet over time. Ramjeet focuses on the need to continue the momentum.
“Whilst we’ve been successful at delivering many new efficiencies in fleet this year, we are only getting started. Fortunately, LBM’s system has everything we need to continue our journey to centralising and digitalising the fleet as much as possible. It’s very much a case of ‘watch this space’ and embracing technology as the fleet evolves to support GemLife’s ongoing growth.”
Kishan Ramjeet, Financial Controller at GemLife
