In brief
Vehicle procurement covers the entire process of acquiring company vehicles: assessing needs, choosing a financing method, comparing offers, ordering, and handover. Selection is based on total costs over the holding period.
What does vehicle procurement involve?
The process starts before the first offer. Vehicle utilization in the existing fleet shows whether a vehicle should be replaced, added, or removed without replacement. The Car Policy then sets the vehicle class, budget, and equipment permitted for the relevant position. Only after that are offers requested, usually from several providers for leasing or through a formal tender process for public-sector buyers.
Buy, lease, or rent?
Four options are common: purchase, leasing based on mileage or residual value, long-term rental, and car subscriptions. The choice depends less on price than on predictability. Leasing ties up no capital and makes costs predictable; purchasing pays off with a long holding period and high mileage; rentals and subscriptions cover short-term or fluctuating demand.
Where do mistakes arise in practice?
Most often when offers are compared by monthly payment. It includes neither energy nor insurance, maintenance, tires, or tax, and it obscures residual-value risk. A comparison becomes meaningful only when based on total lifetime costs (Total Cost of Ownership, TCO). With electric vehicles, the charging infrastructure must also be in place by the delivery date. Permits and grid connections regularly take longer than delivery of the vehicle itself. If offers are also stored as PDFs at dealerships and in individual inboxes, the terms negotiated last time can no longer be traced in the next procurement cycle.
Further reading
Fleet Management Without Excel Spreadsheets
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