2018 Application for The 100 Best Fleets in the Americas™ Page 2
WELCOME TO THE 19th ANNUAL
THE 100 BEST FLEETS IN THE AMERICAS!
Thanks for your interest in the 2018 edition of The 100 Best Fleets in North America. The submission deadline is Saturday, March 17, 2018. Winners will be announced at NAFA Institute & Expo (http://www.nafainstitute.org/) and published in Governing Magazine (http://www.governing.com). To gather your information for the judges, please complete this application and, when completed, e-mail it to . Applications sent to other e-mail addresses may not make it into consideration for the contest. We’d appreciate it if you included your fleet name in the subject line. Also, please send it as a Microsoft Word document – please do NOT convert it to Adobe’s .pdf format. You will receive a confirmation of receipt within two business days.
Please take your time to complete the application. The information you provide is important to the judging process, so please aim to be as brief and specific as possible. The judges look for content not volume. Fields are limited in the amount of information that may be entered (for example [50c] means a field is limited to only 50 characters. Don’t feel you need to use all of the room provided…the limits are maximums, not targets. Now let's get started! Please complete all gray fields.
This contest would not be possible without the kind support of our sponsors. Please click here to visit their websites.
Section 1: Contact information (12 questions)
For this first question, the Name of Government Agency, please use something externally recognizable; for example, "City of Gotham NY" or "Gotham NY Sheriff" rather than "SUA FO" or "Fleet Operations".
Name of Government Agency [50c]:
Please list only one contact person. Your First Name [50c]:
Last Name [50c]:
Postal Address (where your certificate should be mailed if you win) [300c]:
City [50c]:
State/Province [50c]:
Zip Code/Postal Code [30c]:
Your office phone [50c]:
Your mobile phone [30c]:
Your e-mail [60c]:
Your job title [60c]:
We try to spread great ideas and innovations around the fleet industry, but we realize there is sometimes confidential information in the application. May we share your application with others?:
Now that we have your contact information, the remainder of the application consists of two sections, one with very brief responses on each of the twelve criteria and one more open-ended. Feel free mention supporting documents, but don’t send them unless requested by a judge. We are looking for accomplishments, improvements, efficiencies, policies implemented, savings, and consolidations.
Section 2: Very briefly, how do you stack up to each of the following 12 criteria for The 100 Best Fleets? (12 questions) You don’t have to respond to all 12, you can pick and choose the ones you are best at.
Accountability
The fleet operation must have a published list of the measures they use to document performance and progress toward objectives. It must also have a review mechanism in place to measure both individual and team productivity for each area of the fleet operation. [300c]
Use of Technology & Information
The fleet must have a technology deployment plan that is reviewed and updated annually. The technology may include, but is not limited to, fleet information, diagnostic tools, training aids, communication effectiveness-both internal (within the fleet) and external (vendors, customers, governing agencies)-and effective use of the resources available on the world-wide web. [300c]
Collaboration
Generally known as bottom up rather than the topdown model of old, the fleet operation must demonstrate how they encourage the sharing of ideas among all fleet personnel. The operation must also document changes made and performance improvements achieved through the use of collaboration among individuals, as well as different areas of the fleet service delivery processes. [300c]
Creativity
The fleet operation must describe and document how creativity has been encouraged and how new ideas and new technologies have been developed and deployed to address challenges within the operation. [300c]
Celebration
A peak performing operation always finds ways to have fun and to celebrate their successes. The fleet must be able to provide a listing of how often and in what ways they celebrate the successes of their operation. [300c]
Evidence of a High Trust Culture
In such a culture, all employees feel confident to contribute and to even disagree. The operation must demonstrate the existence of such a culture by having mechanisms in place that encourage and reward open sharing of information and ideas. [300c]
Performance Recognition
Programs must be in place to both acknowledge and reward (even if only with a certificate or plaque) excellent performance and/or the attainment of preset goals, whether certification or meeting some level of desired performance improvement. These programs must be in place for periodic recognition of both individuals and teams where applicable. [300c]
Doing It Right the First Time
There must be a metric in place that is regularly measured and reviewed to determine how often any piece of equipment is returned to the shop for rework or additional repair (i.e., missed in initial repair visit). An aggressive program to minimize trips to the repair facility must be in place. [300c]
Quick Efficient Turnaround
Programs must be in place to measure repair turnaround. This turnaround time must be measured accurately, i.e., from initial drop-off until notice of repair completion. In addition, since scheduling of repairs impacts this area significantly, the scheduling process for the fleet operation must be described, as well as documented effectively. [300c]
Competitive Pricing
The fleet operation must document and compare their cost of regular repairs with surrounding commercial and public agency fleets and have a program in place that keeps their customers informed of this fact. [300c]
Staff Development
A program for ensuring that a/l staff members have individualized plans for continued growth and development must be in place. This plan could include strategies such as regular goal-setting, career pathing, self-evaluation, training hours required/taken, peer and supervisor evaluations, as well as' other viable, documented practices for the ongoing development of skiffs and talents. [300c]
Resources Stewardship
A plan must be in place for maximizing the utilization of all resources, including human, capital, and natural. Practices that demonstrate a concern for the environment and the organization's resources must be documented. [300c]
Section 3. Why should you be considered for The 100 Best Fleets? (If you wish, you may consider your whole body of work for the past 5 years with the results of that work.) (One question) [4000c]
Thanks for your interest in The 100 Best Fleets in the Americas. Please send the completed application with your fleet’s name in the subject line of the e-mail to . Applications sent to other e-mail addresses may not make it into consideration for the contest. Please do not convert it to Adobe’s .pdf format…just send it as a Word document. You will receive a confirmation of receipt within two days.
Remember, the deadline for receipt of the application is Saturday, March 17, 2018, but why wait?