Fleet and Transport Management Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Fleet Managers, Transport Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-LD-154

Before you join: Participants should have basic experience of transport, logistics, distribution, field operations, vehicle administration or supplier management.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Fleet performance depends on more than buying suitable vehicles. Transport managers must match capacity to demand, control fuel and maintenance costs, protect driver safety, meet legal obligations and maintain reliable service under changing delivery volumes. Poor vehicle utilisation, weak preventive maintenance, unplanned downtime and unclear dispatch rules can quickly increase cost per kilometre, missed deliveries and customer complaints.

This course develops the practical management skills required to run fleet and transport operations with discipline. Participants examine fleet operating models, vehicle lifecycle planning, acquisition specifications, route and load planning, driver management, workshop control, fuel management, cost analysis and transport performance reporting. They learn to connect service requirements with vehicle availability, manage total cost of ownership, set operational KPIs and use data to identify corrective action.

Teaching combines focused instructor briefings with transport cases, group analysis, route-planning simulations, maintenance and fuel data reviews, and application planning. Cases reflect common fleet settings such as retail distribution, field service fleets, municipal vehicles, humanitarian transport and contractor-managed delivery operations. Participants leave with a fleet management toolkit containing reusable templates for asset planning, vehicle inspection, maintenance scheduling, fuel control, KPI reporting and improvement planning.

The course is suited to managers and specialists responsible for owned, leased, contracted or mixed fleets. It is particularly useful where transport reliability, cost control, driver safety and vehicle availability are central to service delivery.

What you will be able to do

  • Design a fleet operating model using demand, service and capacity data
  • Prepare a vehicle lifecycle plan using total cost of ownership analysis
  • Specify vehicle acquisition requirements for operational, safety and payload needs
  • Apply route, load and dispatch planning methods to improve vehicle utilisation
  • Implement driver management controls covering competence, hours, conduct and safety
  • Develop preventive maintenance schedules and vehicle inspection controls
  • Analyse fuel consumption, transport costs and fleet KPIs for corrective action
  • Produce a fleet improvement plan with priorities, owners and performance measures

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Make defensible vehicle replacement and leasing recommendations using lifecycle cost evidence
  • Diagnose poor utilisation, fuel waste and downtime from operational fleet data
  • Set practical controls for drivers, vehicle inspections and maintenance compliance
  • Lead informed discussions with workshops, transport contractors and vehicle suppliers
  • Build a credible fleet improvement plan for immediate workplace use

For your organisation

  • Lower avoidable transport cost through better utilisation, fuel control and maintenance planning
  • Improve vehicle availability and reduce service disruption from unplanned breakdowns
  • Strengthen driver safety, incident reporting and compliance control
  • Improve procurement decisions through clearer vehicle specifications and lifecycle costing
  • Create consistent fleet KPIs for management review and corrective action

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can define a fleet operating model that aligns transport capacity with service commitments.

  • Fleet operating model: owned, leased, rented and outsourced capacity choices
  • Transport demand profiles using lane, stop, payload and service data
  • Service-level agreements translated into vehicle availability and delivery commitments
  • RACI matrix for transport, maintenance, procurement and finance accountabilities
  • Depot network roles, operating hours and vehicle dispatch constraints
  • Stakeholder map covering customers, drivers, regulators, suppliers and insurers

Participants can plan fleet capacity, replacement timing and asset lifecycle decisions using operating evidence.

  • Fleet inventory structure by vehicle class, age, duty cycle and location
  • Capacity planning from forecast demand, peak volumes and utilisation targets
  • Vehicle lifecycle stages from specification through disposal and replacement
  • Total cost of ownership including capital, fuel, maintenance and residual value
  • Replacement triggers based on downtime, repair cost, safety and emissions
  • Make-buy analysis for owned fleets, leases and contracted transport capacity

Participants can develop vehicle specifications and evaluate acquisition options against operational requirements.

  • Vehicle specification translated from payload, terrain, route and body requirements
  • Payload calculations using gross vehicle weight, axle limits and tare weight
  • Procurement evaluation criteria covering price, lifecycle cost, warranty and support
  • Lease structures: operating lease, finance lease and full-service lease comparisons
  • Supplier scorecards for vehicle dealers, workshops, tyre providers and rental firms
  • Acceptance inspection checklist before commissioning new or replacement vehicles

Participants can plan routes, loads and dispatch activity to improve service and vehicle utilisation.

  • Route planning using delivery windows, distances, restrictions and customer priorities
  • Load planning principles for cube utilisation, weight distribution and handling sequence
  • Backhaul opportunities assessed against timing, capacity and revenue contribution
  • Dispatch board controls for vehicle allocation, driver assignment and status updates
  • Dynamic replanning after traffic disruption, breakdowns and urgent delivery requests
  • Proof-of-delivery procedures linking dispatch records, exceptions and customer claims

Participants can establish driver management controls that support safe, lawful and reliable transport operations.

  • Driver competence matrix covering licence classes, induction and refresher training
  • Daily walkaround checks using defect reporting and escalation procedures
  • Fatigue management controls for duty hours, breaks and roster design
  • Defensive driving principles linked to incident prevention and fuel-efficient driving
  • ISO 39001 road traffic safety management principles for fleet operations
  • Incident investigation using timeline analysis, root cause analysis and corrective actions

Participants can organise preventive maintenance and workshop controls to improve vehicle availability.

  • Preventive maintenance schedules based on mileage, engine hours and manufacturer intervals
  • Defect triage separating safety-critical, operational and cosmetic repair requirements
  • Workshop job cards recording labour, parts, diagnosis and repair authorisation
  • Maintenance backlog analysis by vehicle, defect type, priority and ageing
  • Tyre management through pressure checks, rotation, tread monitoring and replacement
  • Vehicle availability calculation using planned downtime, breakdowns and repair duration

Participants can control fuel use and assess energy choices using measurable fleet performance data.

  • Fuel consumption baselines using litres per 100 kilometres and operating conditions
  • Fuel variance analysis separating route, driver, load, idling and theft factors
  • Fuel card controls covering authorisation, transaction review and exception thresholds
  • Idling reduction methods using telematics alerts, driver coaching and depot rules
  • Alternative fuel assessment for electric, hybrid, biofuel and conventional vehicles
  • ISO 14001 environmental controls applied to fuel, waste oil and emissions records

Participants can calculate fleet costs and use KPIs to direct operational improvement.

  • Fixed and variable fleet costs classified for budgeting and reporting
  • Cost per kilometre, cost per delivery and cost per tonne calculations
  • Annual fleet budget built from demand, asset, fuel and maintenance assumptions
  • KPI dashboard covering utilisation, availability, fuel economy, safety and service
  • Variance analysis comparing actual expenditure, budget, forecast and operating drivers
  • PDCA improvement cycle for investigating underperformance and tracking corrective actions

Participants can define useful fleet data requirements and apply control routines to operational information.

  • Telematics data sources: location, speed, idling, braking and engine diagnostics
  • Fleet management system master data for vehicles, drivers, routes and costs
  • Data quality checks for odometer readings, fuel records and maintenance histories
  • Exception reporting thresholds for speeding, idle time, unauthorised use and overdue services
  • Daily control room routines for dispatch status, incidents and vehicle availability
  • Management review packs combining trends, exceptions, actions and accountable owners

Participants can prioritise fleet risks and prepare a practical improvement plan for their operation.

  • Fleet risk register covering safety, downtime, fuel, supplier and compliance risks
  • Business continuity arrangements for accidents, vehicle shortages and depot disruption
  • Contingency transport options using rental fleets, subcontractors and mutual aid
  • Risk matrix scoring likelihood, consequence, controls and residual exposure
  • Improvement priorities selected through cost, safety, service and feasibility criteria
  • Ninety-day action plan with milestones, owners, measures and review dates

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Fleet operating model template
  2. Vehicle lifecycle cost model
  3. Daily vehicle inspection checklist
  4. Preventive maintenance schedule
  5. Fleet KPI dashboard template
  6. Ninety-day fleet improvement plan

Who should attend

  • Fleet Managers — responsible for vehicle availability, operating cost and fleet performance
  • Transport Managers — accountable for dispatch, delivery reliability and carrier coordination
  • Logistics Supervisors — managing daily vehicle allocation, routes and driver activity
  • Distribution Centre Managers — coordinating outbound transport capacity and delivery service
  • Procurement Professionals — sourcing vehicles, maintenance providers, fuel and transport contracts
  • Operations Managers — overseeing field, service or delivery fleets supporting core operations

Skills and tools covered

Fleet lifecycle planningTransport cost controlRoute and load planningDriver safety managementMaintenance schedulingFleet performance reporting

Tools and standards

ISO 39001, ISO 14001, Total Cost of Ownership, PDCA cycle

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings followed by practical analysis of fleet operating data, transport scenarios and decision cases. Participants work with vehicle replacement choices, route plans, inspection records, fuel reports, maintenance schedules and KPI dashboards. Group exercises test decisions on capacity, service priorities, driver controls and supplier performance. Simulations examine the effect of downtime, delivery changes and fuel variance on fleet cost. Each participant prepares an application plan linked to a current fleet or transport management issue.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have basic experience of transport, logistics, distribution, field operations, vehicle administration or supplier management. They should understand common operational measures such as delivery volumes, vehicle availability, fuel use, maintenance cost and service levels. Familiarity with spreadsheets is helpful because fleet cost and performance data are used throughout the course. Participants do not need engineering qualifications, specialist telematics knowledge, route-planning software expertise or prior responsibility for a large fleet. The course explains core fleet management methods before applying them to operational decisions.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants should have basic exposure to transport, logistics, fleet administration, distribution or operational supervision. Engineering qualifications and prior use of telematics or fleet management software are not required.

Participants should bring a laptop if possible and may bring non-sensitive examples of fleet reports, maintenance records, fuel data or transport issues. Course materials and working templates are provided.

The course is designed for fleet managers, transport managers, logistics supervisors, distribution managers and procurement staff responsible for vehicle-related contracts. It also suits operations managers who oversee service, delivery or field fleets.

This course concentrates on vehicles, drivers, maintenance, fuel, dispatch, fleet cost and transport control. General logistics courses usually give greater attention to inventory, warehousing, network design and order fulfilment.

Participants can use the supplied templates to review fleet costs, vehicle availability, maintenance compliance, fuel variance and driver controls. The final module helps them select workplace priorities and assign actions, measures and review dates.

The five days provide about 32.5 contact hours, delivered from 08:30 to 16:30 each day. Time is divided between ten linked modules, instructor input, case analysis, group work, simulations and individual application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.