Corporate fleets are at a crossroads. They are being asked to cut costs, meet tighter emissions targets, and give drivers more flexibility, often all at once.
According to Jaama’s Fleet Compliance and Cost Benchmark Report, 38% of fleet managers are expecting major improvements to sustainability and emissions compliance reporting in the next 12 months.
But here’s the challenge: most of those improvements will need to happen within existing fleet structures.
Long-term leasing contracts, fixed vehicle allocations, and predictable volumes aren’t going anywhere. The question isn’t whether your fleet model will disappear, it’s how you make it work harder with the tools at your disposal.
How fleets are run today
Data visibility is still becoming a norm within the industry. Applied to connected vehicle and operational data, real-time analytics can show precisely how each vehicle is used: when it is driven, for how long, by whom, on what type of journey, and how often it sits idle.
It also helps with better visibility on core reporting areas including license checks, MOT and servicing schedules, and grey fleet management. Without visible data, these day-to-day responsibilities become much trickier.
When we work with fleet managers to analyse this data, we often see variation in utilisation across different vehicle types, locations and departments.
That doesn’t mean the vehicles shouldn’t be there – corporate fleets ultimately exist to guarantee availability and manage risk, not simply to maximise utilisation percentages.
But it does give fleet managers a clear reason to realign vehicle choice with real‑world usage, adjust mileage bands and replacement cycles, and identify where sharing policies or different funding routes might be more effective.
In other words, this is less about tearing up the rulebook and more about optimising the established leasing and fleet frameworks that businesses already rely on.
Why ‘pay‑per‑use’ is still a future conversation
Over the past decade, there has been a lot of discussion about pay‑per‑use and ad‑hoc access models – car clubs, subscription vehicles and other forms of on‑demand mobility.
In theory, these approaches promise to match capacity more closely to actual demand and reduce under‑used assets.
However, recent developments such as Zipcar’s exit from the UK market at the end of 2025 are an important reminder that this market is not currently mature enough for this to be a long-stay in the mainstream.
If a well‑known, urban‑focused provider with scale and brand recognition struggles to sustain the model, it underlines the difficulty of making purely ad‑hoc access work economically, even in major cities like London.
For corporate fleet managers, that reality matters. When working with leasing providers, you’re looking for predictable, contracted vehicle volumes, long‑term relationships and guaranteed availability for mission‑critical operations.
Those fundamentals are not going away any time soon.
This doesn’t mean that usage‑based or more flexible models will never take hold; rather, they are a far‑future possibility that will emerge gradually and selectively where the operational needs align.
How fleet managers can prepare
For corporate fleet teams, the right response isn’t to chase the latest mobility trend, but to use data to get more value from your existing leasing contracts and vehicle allocations, while building flexibility where it actually makes sense for your operation.
Better data can help to:
- Refine contract structures: use utilisation and mileage data to shape more accurate mileage bands, renewal points and maintenance schedules, reducing the risk of costly over‑ or under‑estimation.
- Segment by usage profile: identify where usage patterns might, in the long term, support more flexible or seasonal offerings, while maintaining traditional leasing structure where there are stable, high‑duty needs.
- Support sustainability and compliance: as reporting requirements tighten, data‑driven insight into emissions, driver behaviour and duty‑of‑care can become a differentiator for fleet managers operating within conventional models. For those looking to lessen their impacts, flexible options can provide a solution.
In all these areas, the core proposition remains the same: fleet managers need reliable, contract‑based access to vehicles at scale.
The flexibility element simply helps make those contracts smarter, fairer and more closely aligned to real‑world usage.
From asset controllers to strategic partners
Within this context, the role of the fleet manager is also evolving – but in no way disappearing. Fleet professionals are employed, first and foremost, to run a fleet: to ensure the right vehicles are available, safe, compliant and cost‑effective, and to manage the relationships with leasing and service partners.
What is changing is the expectation of how they use data to:
- Make evidence‑based decisions about vehicle choice, funding routes and policy design.
- Work with leasing partners to adjust contracts and specifications over time.
- Balance cost, compliance, sustainability and driver experience within familiar, proven frameworks.
Rather than becoming ‘mobility coordinators’ overnight, many fleet managers are gradually taking on a more strategic, advisory role – using data‑driven insights to shape long‑term fleet and leasing decisions.
Looking ahead
The direction of travel is clear: over the next decade, having real-time visibility of fleet data will play an increasing role in how fleets are specified, funded and operated.
But it’s clear the industry is still in the discovery phase of this new approach to fleet management. The world of corporate mobility still rests firmly on predictable, contracted vehicle provision, and will do for many years.
The immediate opportunity for fleet managers is to ensure their data is visible and use it to get better at what they already do: supplying and managing vehicles in a way that is financially sustainable, compliant and aligned with business needs.
Tom Mansbridge is a senior technical consultant at Jaama
