Vehicles Characteristics and Their Implication on Fleet Management Performance: A Case of East Africa Bottling S.C (EABSC)
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Date
2025-02
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Addius Ababa University
Abstract
Effective fleet management is essential for organizations to enhance operational efficiency, achieve cost savings, and promote sustainability in transportation and logistics. Notably, logistics costs can account for 10% to 30% of a manufacturing firm's overall expenses, with transportation comprising about 50% of total distribution costs. This study focuses on the impact of various vehicle characteristics on fleet management performance at East Africa Bottling S.C. (EABSC), examining factors such as fleet aging, vehicle mass, fleet size, standardization, commonality, and wheelbase. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, the research combines primary data from questionnaires with secondary data from academic and industry sources, employing quantitative analyses like regression and correlation to explore the relationships between vehicle characteristics and fleet performance. The study also develops a Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP) optimization framework that incorporates these vehicle characteristics to enhance fleet optimization accuracy. Findings indicate that fleet aging, fleet size, fleet standardization, and fleet commonality significantly affect overall fleet performance. On the other hand, vehicle mass affects the fleet performance moderately. Vehicle height and vehicle wheel base has low significant on the performance. The optimization results suggest that integrating vehicle characteristics into the CVRP model can improve the fleet composition to meet a delivery demand of 80 million cases while adhering to a cost target of 150 million from 164 million. Recommendations include implementing effective maintenance practices, optimizing fleet usage, and aligning fleet strategies with organizational goals. This research contributes to existing knowledge by clarifying how vehicle characteristics influence fleet management performance and emphasizing their importance in transportation and logistics system design.
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Keywords
Vehicles Characteristics, Fleet Management Performance, Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem.