The Graf Hardenberg Group has been using Fleet+ from Carano for more than a year. The fleet software has now become an integral part of the work of the fleet experts from the southwest of Germany and has ensured greater efficiency in everyday work. We take a closer look at the project in our success story.
Thorsten Eisenbarth, authorized signatory and head of Fuhrparkmanagement GmbH at Graf Hardenberg, likes to review the development of his company over the past years.
In 2016, the fleet management company was established and marked the start of a more comprehensive service portfolio. Major and fleet customers should no longer know the Graf Hardenberg Group only as a national car dealer, but also as a service provider for comprehensive fleet management services. From now on, customers will also receive attractive services such as claims and repair management when they purchase a company car. Everything from a single source, so to speak.
Passenger cars and commercial vehicles
Employees
Discount stores throughout Germany
Expanding the business area was a smart and, above all, successful move. Well-known companies in Germany, such as Pfizer, have long since placed their trust in it, L’Oreal or the drugstore chain dm on Graf Hardenberg’s know-how: “We don’t want to be just a service provider for our customers, but a partner who accompanies both major customers and smaller fleet operators in their multifaceted processes. This is perhaps what makes us so valuable,” reveals Thorsten Eisenbarth, who knows that, based on experience, standing still would have meant taking a step backwards in recent years. As a result, he and his nearly 15 employees are always on the lookout for process optimization and customized solutions to simplify the everyday lives of fleet customers.
These optimizations primarily affect operational tasks, such as deadline monitoring for driver’s license checks or UVV driver instruction, but also reporting, claims management, fuel card provision, and decentralized, nationwide delivery and logistics. Not to mention inspection and repair services as well as maintenance of all kinds. This requires comprehensive consulting by key account managers.
Challenges
Desire for more flexibility and accelerated processes
Solutions
Fleet+ fleet software ensures greater efficiency in day-to-day fleet operations and enables more individualized customer service.
With the implementation of Fleet+, we have set the course for a successful future for us, but also for our customers.
Count Hardenberg Group
Fleet+, the fleet management software from Carano, has been in use for just over a year and the assistant to the sales manager Stella Scheuer draws a positive conclusion: “There is a regular exchange with Carano and we have made a lot of progress in a short time. This also includes the fact that we have developed a common guideline, which forms our basis for continued positive cooperation.”
Graf Hardenberg was looking for a partner who recognizes the needs of the customers and is able to implement them in a software solution in such a user-friendly way that the existing effort is significantly minimized.
A modern vehicle fleet faces major challenges: On the one hand, mobility should be managed efficiently and as bundled as possible, but on the other hand, individual flows within the fleet must not be neglected.
Count Hardenberg Group
Thorsten Eisenbarth adds: “The past few months with Carano have shown that digitally mapped processes in the fleet offer the greatest savings potential in the long term, both for us and for our customers. With the new software, Graf Hardenberg Fuhrparkmanagement GmbH can provide its customers with more individualized support and respond more quickly to their needs: “We are more flexible and I hope that in two years at the latest we will be able to implement all our customers in such a way that they can benefit from all our services,” says Eisenbarth, referring to the technical delays that have occurred since the outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020.
Developments in the past year have once again highlighted how important the topic of digitization is in the fleet industry as well. “We see that digitization in this area is also increasing the dynamics of the individual processes and thus also the expectations for the handling of these processes. What this means for us in concrete terms is that the more services we can offer from a single source, the faster and also more customer-friendly we can respond.”
Carano’s Fleet+ software solution enables precisely this desired process acceleration. The next goals are clear. The Graf Hardenberg Group not only wants to expand, but also to take a fundamentally new approach to fleet management. “Initially, this will be via an app, and later as a solution in the company car itself,” emphasizes Thorsten Eisenbarth, summing up the first year with Carano with satisfaction: “We have now set the course for the future.”
The Graf Hardenberg Group is one of the most successful automotive trade groups in Germany. With over 1,500 employees at 15 locations and 30 plants in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate, the company, which was founded by Günther Graf von Hardenberg in the late 1940s, represents the ten strong brands Volkswagen, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Audi, ŠKODA, SEAT, CUPRA, Porsche, Ford, Vespa and Harley-Davidson. In 2019, annual sales amounted to approximately 800 million euros.
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