Assessing the efficacy of internal fleet policies in the management of fleet within urban local authorities in Zimbabwe.

Abstract

The rationale of this study is to assess the influence of fleet management policy on the management of vehicles in urban local authorities of Zimbabwe. The study was conducted within 4 urban local authorities in Harare Metropolitan Province of Zimbabwe. A mixed methods approach was adopted, accompanied with a stratified random sampling technique to collect data from a sample size of 347 respondents which was deemed using Raosoft sampling tool. The study collected data using questionnaire, which was distributed physically. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 20.1. The findings indicate that the inefficiency of fleet management policy negatively influences the efficiency of vehicle acquisition, maintenance, disposal and fuel management. This shows that the existence of a weak fleet management policy within local authorities results in high operational and maintenance costs, thereby compromising service delivery. The study concluded that fleet management policy in local authorities in Zimbabwe is not well-constructed, they fail to support effective management of fleet.  Therefore, the study recommends establishing guidelines for continuous review of fleet management policies to support operational needs, cost-effective resource management, and efficient fleet performance evaluation.