Maximizing Fleet Efficiency: Insights from Industry Experts with Renee Millum

Summary

The Home Service Expert Podcast: Episode Summary

Title: Maximizing Fleet Efficiency: Insights from Industry Experts with Renee Millam
Host: Tommy Mello
Guest: Renee Millam, Fleet Management Expert
Release Date: August 8, 2025

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Introduction to Fleet Management

In this episode of The Home Service Expert Podcast, host Tommy Mello welcomes Renee Millam, a seasoned expert in fleet management, to discuss strategies for maximizing fleet efficiency within the home service industry. Renee brings over a decade of experience in commercial fleet strategy, administration, and wellness, making her insights invaluable for businesses aiming to optimize their vehicle operations.

Leasing vs. Buying Fleet Vehicles

A significant portion of the discussion centers around the financial and operational benefits of leasing fleet vehicles compared to purchasing them outright. Renee emphasizes the importance of understanding depreciation and cash flow management:

"Putting cash into a depreciating absolute asset makes absolutely no good business sense." [04:31]

Renee highlights that leasing allows businesses to allocate their capital more effectively, offering flexibility and tax advantages. Unlike buying, leasing spreads out expenses and avoids the substantial upfront costs associated with vehicle purchases. Additionally, leasing provides businesses with the ability to upgrade vehicles more frequently, ensuring a reliable and professional fleet image.

Fleet Strategy and Vehicle Replacement Timing

Renee underscores the critical timing for replacing fleet vehicles to avoid costly breakdowns and maintain operational efficiency:

"We know from all the data we collect about over half a million vehicles, a gas engine. The right time to get out is 100k. There's about a 36% probability that something catastrophic is going to happen after that." [00:00]

She advises businesses to consider replacing vehicles proactively around the 80k-mile mark, especially after warranties expire, to maximize resale value and minimize the risk of major mechanical failures.

Impact of Vehicle Appearance on Business

The appearance of fleet vehicles plays a pivotal role in shaping customer perceptions and employee morale. Renee shares insights on how a well-maintained and branded vehicle can enhance a company's professional image:

"There’s pride of ownership... showing up in brand new vehicles, the ticket average doubled." [16:06]

Tommy echoes this sentiment, noting that new, organized vehicles not only impress clients but also boost technician morale, leading to increased productivity and customer satisfaction.

Maintenance Tracking and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Effective fleet management involves monitoring various KPIs to ensure vehicles are operating optimally. Renee identifies the primary KPIs as:

1. Operating Expenses: The largest component of total cost of ownership.
2. Depreciation: Understanding the optimal time to replace vehicles.
3. Downtime: Tracking and minimizing periods when vehicles are unavailable due to maintenance or repairs.

She points out that many companies overlook downtime as a critical KPI, which can significantly impact overall efficiency and service delivery.

Technology Integration in Fleet Management

The integration of advanced technologies is revolutionizing fleet management. Renee discusses the role of GPS tracking and dual-camera systems in enhancing fleet oversight:

"Whether you have a camera or not, having a GPS can make a huge amount of difference." [18:49]

She explains how these technologies help in monitoring driver behavior, preventing fuel theft, and reducing insurance costs by providing accurate incident reporting and vehicle tracking.

Tax Benefits and Financial Strategies of Leasing

Leasing offers substantial tax benefits that can enhance a company’s financial health. Renee explains how leasing can reduce tax liabilities and preserve cash flow:

"In almost every single state, if you lease a vehicle, there's no sales tax. There's a monthly sales tax, so you don't pay interest on that." [25:10]

She also highlights the advantage of using lease arrangements to keep business credit separate from personal credit, thereby strengthening a company's financial standing and facilitating future growth.

Prospects of Electric Vehicle Fleets

The conversation touches on the emerging trend of electric vehicles (EVs) in fleet management. While EVs offer environmental benefits and potential tax credits, Renee expresses cautious optimism due to current infrastructural limitations:

"Manufacturers are putting electric vehicles out there, but companies are scared... they don't want to send their driver out and have them get stuck somewhere and don't have a charge." [22:47]

She anticipates that improvements in charging infrastructure and vehicle technology will make EVs more viable for commercial fleets in the near future.

Choosing the Right Fleet Manager

Selecting an experienced fleet manager is crucial for effective fleet operations. Renee advises businesses to seek out managers who understand both the technical aspects of vehicle maintenance and the strategic financial benefits of leasing:

"Somebody with experience that understands vehicles and just understands how to care for them, I guess." [25:19]

She emphasizes the importance of proactive management and personalized service to ensure optimal fleet performance and cost savings.

Engaging with Fleet Management Services

For businesses interested in optimizing their fleet operations, Renee outlines the process for engaging with her services through JumpSpark. She encourages listeners to schedule a discovery meeting to discuss their specific needs and explore leasing options tailored to their business goals:

"They can simply go on the jumpspark.com website. There's a place where they can fill out a form and it comes directly to me." [29:46]

Renee assures prospective clients of her commitment to exceptional customer service, regardless of fleet size.

Conclusion: The Benefits of Proactive Fleet Management

The episode concludes with a strong endorsement of leasing and proactive fleet management as essential strategies for home service businesses aiming for growth and operational excellence. Renee reiterates the comprehensive benefits of her approach, including financial savings, enhanced vehicle reliability, and improved company image.

"Our goal is to make it a seamless and easy process for you and you're going to get the same level of customer service whether it's 1 or 100." [38:37]

Tommy encourages listeners to take action by reaching out through JumpSpark to unlock these benefits and take their business to the next level.

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Key Takeaways:

• Leasing vs. Buying: Leasing offers financial flexibility, tax advantages, and helps maintain a professional fleet image.
• Optimal Replacement Timing: Replace vehicles proactively around the 80k-mile mark to avoid costly breakdowns and maximize resale value.
• Importance of Vehicle Appearance: Well-maintained, branded vehicles enhance customer perception and boost employee morale.
• Essential KPIs: Monitor operating expenses, depreciation, and downtime to ensure fleet efficiency.
• Technological Integration: Utilize GPS and camera systems to monitor fleet performance, reduce theft, and lower insurance costs.
• Tax Benefits: Leasing can significantly reduce tax liabilities and preserve cash flow, facilitating business growth.
• Electric Vehicles: While promising, EVs require better infrastructure and technological advancements to be fully viable for fleets.
• Choosing the Right Fleet Manager: Experience and a proactive approach are crucial for effective fleet management.
• Engagement: Schedule a discovery meeting with fleet management experts to tailor leasing solutions to your business needs.

For more information and to optimize your fleet operations, visit JumpSpark.com.

Transcript

[Renee Milam]

We know from all the data we collect about over half a million vehicles, a gas engine. The right time to get out is 100k. There's about a 36% probability that something catastrophic is going to happen after that.

[Tommy Mello]

Welcome to the Home Service Expert, where each week Tommy chats with world class entrepreneurs and experts in various fields like marketing, sales, hiring and leadership to find out what's really behind their success in business. Now your host, the home service millionaire, Tommy Mello.

[Unknown]

Before we get started, I wanted to share two important things with you. First, I want you to implement what you learned today. To do that, you'll have to take a lot of notes. But I also want you to fully concentrate on the interview. So I asked the team to take notes for you. Just text notes N o t e s to 888-526-1299. That's 888-526-1299 and you'll receive a link to download the notes from today's episode. Also, if you haven't got your copy of my newest book, elevate, please go check it out. I'll share with you how I attracted and developed a winning team that helped me build a $200 million company in 22 states. Just go to elevateandwin.com podcast to get your copy. Now let's go back into the interview. All right, guys, today's gonna be a killer podcast. I'm sitting here with Renee Milam and she's been helping me for the last decade just on how we handle our fleet here at A1 garage door service. She's an expert in sales, business, fleet management, fleet administration. She's based here in Goodyear and lots of vast knowledge. She spent the last 11 years learning and training in the commercial fleet industry. Knows everything there is to know about fleet strategy and management, fleet wellness, fleet goals and priorities and fleet administration. And I thought I'd have you on because everybody always calls me and says what do I do to Do I buy new? Do I buy used, Do I go to kick charge? Do I get it branded? Do I depreciate it? How does the gas cars work like wex, when do I sell it? All these questions. So I'm just going to start out. First and foremost, you want to tell the audience a little bit about you and how what you've been up to the last few years.

Sure.

[Renee Milam]

Yeah. Thanks, Tommy. I appreciate you inviting me here to talk about leasing and fleet management. Definitely been a career move for me, like you said, over the last decade and I'm excited and I'm passionate about it. So moved here with my family again actually. I was trained and worked for one of the largest fleet management companies here in, you know, Arizona. That's where I met you actually to begin with. If anybody doesn't know it, Tommy is quite the acrobat. First time I met him, he did a full cartwheel on hole nine of the Scottsdale TPC course.

[Unknown]

Oh yeah, that's not surprising. There's probably beer involved.

[Renee Milam]

I don't think you can do that right now. Looks like you got a bum foot. But yeah, if anybody hasn't seen it, it's, it's quite the, the site. So yeah, so I'm, I'm currently working in the commercial fleet industry. Met you, partnered up with you and wanted to, you know, hopefully share some benefits about, you know, why does it make Sense to lease versus buy?

[Unknown]

Yeah, in 2015, I think it was 2015, I met a guy named Daryl. I knew him for a long time. I knew him for, knew him for 10 years before that. But he's like, why do you buy all these used pieces of crap? Have you ever heard about depreciation? Do you know what it's like for your team to have a broken down truck? And do you understand the perception of the clients on the road that see those used pieces of crap? And he told me straight up like it is, he told me that and he told me, buy a building. I've made more buying and selling buildings as I grew than I made entirely in the garage door business. So those two pieces of advice, I always thought, man, I'm getting a better deal. My dad's a mechanic, I've got hoists, I could just fix these things, take care of them and I'm saving a bunch of money.

[Renee Milam]

And that comes up a lot. I still talk to clients, especially in the home service industry every day, right? They're like, why would I pay all that interest? Interest rates are so high. Interest rates only about 5% of your total cost of ownership when it comes to a vehicle. And if you do have the cash flow and say I can afford it, why wouldn't you put that somewhere else in the business to help you make more money or if you don't need it in the business, why wouldn't you put it into a money market? Putting cash into a depreciating absolute asset makes absolutely no good business sense. Yes, you can depreciate it all up front, but once that depreciation is gone, what do you have? At least if you're paying Interest, That's a tax deduction.

[Unknown]

It's a tax write off anyway. And the thing that I learned about fleets is they got kind of a shelf life. Usually there's an automotive warranty on everything, the tranny and the engine and there's a good time to turn it back in. So you get maximum amount of money when you turn it in versus running it till it falls apart. Can you talk a little bit about like fleet strategy and some of, like you. What are some of the bigger clients you've worked with?

[Renee Milam]

Some of the bigger clients I work with gettle. I can't think of any at the top of my head there.

[Unknown]

There's like massive ones that aren't even in the home service space. But does anybody, does Amazon buy their own trucks?

[Renee Milam]

Absolutely not.

[Unknown]

No.

[Renee Milam]

No.

[Unknown]

None of these companies do. The Red Cross, UPS, FedEx, like they all lease.

[Renee Milam]

Absolutely. 498 companies out of the 500 fortune.

[Unknown]

Companies, at least 498 top 500.

[Renee Milam]

That's a fact. Yeah.

[Unknown]

I mean my CFO is a wizard of doing this to where it would never make sense to buy a vehicle.

[Renee Milam]

Absolutely. Like I said, once you buy it and you depreciate it, it's done. At least when you lease it, you can still use your, your 179 tax advantage because it qualifies. You're using it 50% for business, you're owning it like it's your own. You're maintenance, you're insurance in it. And then there's a buyout at the end of this lease. This is an open ended equity lease. We're not talking about your typical retail lease where you're going to pay a little bit of money, you're going to turn it at the end, you're get dinged for mileage and wear and tear. This type of lease was made for commercial businesses because home service business come put on lots of mileage. You never know if you're going to do 15 or 30,000 miles a year.

[Unknown]

Right.

And, and let me ask you, so usually is it like five bucks you own it at the end of five years? Is that like, it's like you, you get through the five year lease and it's like a super low buyout.

[Renee Milam]

It's flexible. We can do it down to a dollar or typically we like to do it to 10 to 15%.

[Unknown]

Okay.

[Renee Milam]

Because that way you're still going to be in an equity position after 12 months.

[Unknown]

Right.

[Renee Milam]

You don't want to be upside down in this vehicle. Especially if we have to sell them at 36 months or 24 months or 48, whatever it may be. So we're going to make that residual very small, and then that way you're not paying interest on that portion of the vehicle that you're not utilizing anyway.

[Unknown]

I love that. You know, I think I fell in love with the Dodges. They've got a great warranty, they've been very dependable. I went down to Stellantis in Mexico and then I went and saw Util Master, and everybody's kind of like, how do we get your type of deal? That's why we started Jump Spark. But what I love about your programs is they don't just pay for the vehicle. You'll outfit the whole vehicle and you'll wrap it. And that's all included. So I'm not out the. The 6,000 to wrap it and then the 10,000 to outfit it. It's all rolled up into one. How does that work?

[Renee Milam]

Yeah, it's all enc. So another thing, you know, people say, oh, I'm just going to continue to finance it because my payment's less. Well, truly, are you comparing apples to apples?

[Unknown]

Right.

[Renee Milam]

You're not going to. The dealership's not going to pay for your wrap. If you're full wrapping that, that's anywhere to five, four to $5,000.

[Unknown]

Right.

[Renee Milam]

They may, they may not include the upfit that you need in there. Right. So with this program, it's turnkey. We source the vehicle, we dial in the outfit, just the way whatever that department is, maybe service, maybe install, and then we take it logistically to the graphics person, get it wrapped, deliver it turnkey, and we include that. All encompassed in the lease.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Renee Milam]

So if you qualify for no money down, you're not paying out of pocket for the outfit or maybe 10% down to the dealership or whatever it may be to the graphics dealer.

[Unknown]

And when is the best time, like a FedEx, Amazon Gettle, when is the best time to turn that in? Is it right before it ends on the 100,000 miles, or is it a time thing or both?

[Renee Milam]

It's both, Tommy. I mean, the time to get out of vehicle is really a moving target, to be honest. You know, during COVID for example, if you could get out of your vehicle sooner and if you could replace it, it was a good thing because used vehicles were more expensive than new vehicles.

[Unknown]

Right.

[Renee Milam]

But it all depends on depreciation. You know, what is a vehicle worth at that point in time, at that mileage? We know from all the data we collect about over Half a million vehicles, a gas engine. The right time to get out is 100k before that, even better, because you're going to make more money. Dealerships will pay more money for a vehicle that's got less than 100k. But there's also after that 100k mark, there's about a 36% probability that something catastrophic is going to happen after that on a gas engine. Okay, right. So that's really want to be. You really want to start looking at getting at it around 80k after warranty is up and before it gets that 100, 100k mark.

[Unknown]

You know what we did started doing too, is it used to bug the heck out of me because we take openers and we shove them in the back and the. The van started to get all dented up. And so now we run plastic like that covering even. And I never did it to the back of them till about five years ago. Now we do plastic sheets. It's pretty thick. It's about a quarter of an inch. And now there's no dents. So you're turning in this vehicle that's like flawless. Once you pull the wrap off, it looks like it's new almost. Is that what most companies are doing now?

[Renee Milam]

A lot of them are going, yeah, absolutely. They're requesting to have that put in there and lots of times too. I'm finding that we can. Well, if you factory order something, Tommy, we can order just the way you need it.

[Unknown]

Right.

[Renee Milam]

That's where you're going to get your best pricing. It's about being proactive and that takes time.

[Unknown]

Right.

[Renee Milam]

Most people just can't step into it because they've been replacing and buying vehicles reactively. I have a new tech starting. All right. Or had an accident. So if you can get into sitting down and. Which is what part of JumpSpark is all about is sitting down and being proactive, looking at your vehicles, kind of anticipating what that mileage is going to be in the next three to four months. So we can factory order the vehicle. We can get those wall panels in there. We're going to pay the less for the part.

[Unknown]

Right.

[Renee Milam]

We're going to pay less money overall for this vehicle, get it outfitted and delivered and turnkey ready to go to save yourself some money too. So.

[Unknown]

So is that what it is about three to four months? Proactively, most of the time, depending on the manufacturer.

[Renee Milam]

Lead times have gotten a lot better now that Covid is kind of over. So RAM is definitely probably the quickest. Three to four months. Ford's A little bit longer than that. Chevy is probably right around the same time frame.

[Unknown]

But, you know, what we do is in every market other than Phoenix, we carry an extra vehicle. I think because me not having a guy in the field with capacity planning doesn't make any sense. I think there's certain markets we have a couple extra, and I think it's important to do that. So time three to four months. And tell me, talk, what if I like to do business with my local dealer? Isn't there a process that you guys could actually negotiate better through?

[Renee Milam]

Yeah, absolutely. I don't know if you've ever when the last time you've actually went to the dealership and tried to purchase a vehicle, but I'm sure everybody has been through that process and it's no fun, right? You get there, you get there, you negotiate, you go back and forth, and before you know it, you've been there three or four hours and you still don't have a vehicle. We handle that process for you.

[Unknown]

Right?

[Renee Milam]

And it is my fiduciary duty to kind of play dealerships against each other. It's my job to get you the best price. I have dealerships in place to do that, and I will go to them first. And if I have to, like, I have clients say, hey, I have a great relationship with so and so I've been working with them for 10 years. Can you really do business with them? I'll be like, absolutely. Are you willing to pay more for your vehicle, though? For me to do business with them?

[Unknown]

Yeah. So you're going to go out there even if you're used to buying locally? Let's say I need a vehicle in two weeks. You're able to source it through a local dealer at a better price.

[Renee Milam]

At a better price? Yep.

[Unknown]

What have you learned? Your big piece of enterprise. You understand the fleet game. They're the best of the best. What are some of the common mistakes?

[Renee Milam]

You see people buying used vehicles, like you said, right? Hey, they're going to save a little bit on the front end, but they're not going to save it on the back end.

[Unknown]

Right.

[Renee Milam]

So they think by buying that used vehicle, they're going to pay less, they're going to have a more affordable payment, but in actuality, they don't know what that vehicle has gone through that first year or two, that before they even bought it, at least.

[Unknown]

Right.

[Renee Milam]

At least if you buy something new, you know, you have that warranty, you know, you're the only one that's been driving it. So that's probably one of the biggest mistakes. And then to just holding on to their vehicles until they need new transmission and then they go in to find out that the transmission may be less than a new vehicle, but the vehicle.

[Unknown]

Is so old it's going to have more issues. Radiators.

[Renee Milam]

Exactly. It doesn't make financial sense to replace that transmission now.

[Unknown]

It's been a while since I've really dug into the fleet department, but I think we've got a program that covers almost everything that we pay a little extra for the oil changes and if it needs a radiator, I'm not sure exactly. I think we pay a little like it's like an insurance plan or something. Or handles the maintenance well.

[Renee Milam]

What you know a one is with a different fleet management provider. But with JumpSpark we have an overall discount program and how that works. It is a monthly fee. It's a little bit. It's like $10 per vehicle depending on the size of your fleet. But it allows you to use any of our nationwide vendors. So you could save 10, 20 to 30% as the goal overall. So you get discounted on preventative maintenance. You get ASC certified technicians that are reviewing non preventative maintenance. Right. Because they're incentivized to save you money. They make more if they can save you money on labor and parts.

[Unknown]

Right.

[Renee Milam]

And they're, you know, if you have a mechanic that goes in or a driver that goes in and it's too soon, the service isn't going to get done. A vehicle goes in and we negotiate a better price for you. But we still don't think it's going to help improve the vehicle because it's so old. We're going to let you know that too.

[Unknown]

Right.

So you know, when we bought the Don's garage doors in Denver, There was about 15 guys and the only question they asked literally was, are you going to give us new trucks? They were so used to getting broke down, getting 500 bucks for the week. The morale was horrible. All they cared about do we get a new vehicle? And there's like pride of ownership when they, that's their. That's their office. They drive around that. That's how your company's getting showed. Like when we started showing up in brand new vehicles, the ticket average doubled. People were like, we know you're not the cheapest, you're the best. We don't want this to break again. Just do whatever it takes to fix the store the right way. You guys are the professionals. And then you get like the old truck. I See, a lot of the guys in, like, the tile business, and they're especially in Arizona, you know what I mean? And they just, they put everything on the side. Like, they do all the stuff they do. You don't really know. And it's like, I've used those guys. Everybody that shows up to our house now has a new truck. Like, I want it done right. I want the best warranty. I want them to be safe around my family. And I think it's just a. Not a status thing, but just like, oh, they're professional.

[Renee Milam]

They're gonna do a lot of brand damage. Yeah, absolutely. Like, I don't know how many times you walk coming. Your parents told you or my parents told me. You know, first impressions count.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Renee Milam]

You walk into an interview, it's the same thing when you show up with your truck at a customer's house, it's first impressions.

[Unknown]

Right.

[Renee Milam]

And something else you were talking about with the drivers. I get texts almost every other day from new clients that have come on board and said, oh, my gosh, you should see the grin on my technician's face when they got their new vehicle. Yeah, you should see the smile. Oh, my gosh, Renee. He's so excited. They're so excited. They're so happy, you know, And I'll hear from owners that, like, oh, it doesn't matter what type of vehicle they drive. They don't care about the vehicle. They're just going to beat it up. They don't care. They don't care because you gave them a piece of crap in the first place. Right. So give them the benefit of the doubt. If you're hiring the right people, you give them something new, they're going to treat it respectfully because they're going to feel proud.

[Unknown]

Right.

[Renee Milam]

Driving around in it.

[Unknown]

It's like when you go to a nice house, like a pristine house, like, if I get water on the sink, like, I'm cleaning it up. Versus, like, being in a nasty baseball game where you're just like, if you.

[Renee Milam]

Miss, no big deal. Exactly.

[Unknown]

It's 100% true.

[Renee Milam]

That's a good analogy. Yeah.

[Unknown]

So what KPI should I be paying attention to with the fleet? I mean, obviously there's oil changes. I think we've got stuff plugged into the OB2 sensor that alerts us about everything. But what are the technologies? What are, like, KPIs that you look at in a fleet?

[Renee Milam]

Like, operating expenses are the two main key things, honestly.

[Unknown]

Right.

[Renee Milam]

That's your two. The biggest part of total cost of ownership. And then Just like I said, depreciation. When's the right time to get out of there? There's the three main things that going to cost you the most and then also downtime. A lot of people don't know how to track downtime.

[Unknown]

Yeah, right.

[Renee Milam]

A lot of people say, oh, I have a spare, I don't have any downtime. But you do. You still have downtime. You have downtime when the vehicle goes in for just preventative maintenance. So that is a definitely a KPI that's definitely not tracked by most companies out there because it's very hard to track.

[Unknown]

What is AI changing the game at all? Shaping how fleets maintained. Is there anything with AI?

[Renee Milam]

I mean, there is some stuff coming up, definitely. I need to find out more information on that. But you're going to be seeing a lot more new stuff in the future when it comes to AI and, and how that helps. It's going to help, you know, point out KPIs for your fleet and when.

[Unknown]

To like turn it in. What makes.

[Renee Milam]

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

[Unknown]

Like, especially with that, like we've got the camera systems. It's a dual camera. Listens, we run to make sure if a guy looks down, looks away, rolls through a stop sign, is speeding, we know about it. And those are like, unfortunately, we've had a lot of accidents. We've had a couple trucks flip. We've had like, we know every time a guy looks at his phone and those are learning opportunities and we're very strict on that. And I think, man, you get in a couple bad accidents, it could put, put a small business out of business.

[Renee Milam]

Absolutely. Your insurance rates will crush you.

[Unknown]

Yep.

[Renee Milam]

Your loss runs will make that very difficult. No. So having cameras, if you. Yeah, absolutely. Front facing, back facing. If someone knows they're being watched and they, and they, you know, want to stay in their position, it definitely makes a big difference. I even had a company who called and told me that they didn't have the camera, but with the gps they had a call from someone that said, hey, a tool fell out of the back of your truck. I was driving behind it.

[Unknown]

Right.

[Renee Milam]

And it, you know, damaged my vehicle. They're able to pull that, that up and find out that that vehicle wasn't anywhere in that vicinity on that day and time. So.

[Unknown]

Oh yeah.

[Renee Milam]

Whether you have a camera or not, having a GPS can make a huge amount of difference. Can save you on your insurance. It can keep you out of hot water in situations like that.

[Unknown]

I like to. The OB2 sensor tells you the codes and you know, the Codes like you know exactly what's going on. Like right away it pops up. This is what it was an air filter issue or it's a major issue. Right. I think that's a big advantage to understand how long the car is going to be out. I had a guy reach out the other day, he's like, how do you track your gas? He's like, I think my guys are filling up their wife's tanks. I know there's, there's wax and there's other things. Can you explain how that works, sir?

[Renee Milam]

So you can get a wex card, but the only way for you can really tell if you know a true theft is you have to use it in conjunction with a GPS tracker of some sort. It can be geotab, it can be one of the Sam, Sarah, something out there. But they, they work in conjunction. So.

[Unknown]

So yeah, so like my truck, I've got the trx. It's actually a vehicle in the fleet because I got a company car and I get the special card and then I got to put in the odometer reading every time.

Right.

And so it's tracking the miles, the gas per mile against the odometer reading.

[Renee Milam]

Yeah. Even if you just have a card like that and you don't have gps, if the mileage is input incorrectly, you're going to get report that's alerting you to that.

[Unknown]

Right.

[Renee Milam]

So it could be the fact that, yeah, they were at say 60,000 miles and all of a sudden they're filling up something at 30,000 miles. Is it their really vehicle? Is it somebody else's vehicle? You don't know for sure, but you would get alerts, you know, giving you a heads up regarding that.

[Tommy Mello]

Hey guys, hope you're enjoying today's episode. I have a quick story for you about my friend Kevin. Kevin's family ran an electrical business that brought in just 400k a year. His dad worked from sunup to sundown, doing his best to hide the stress from his kids. When Kevin took over the business, he knew that 400k wasn't going to cut it. Not for where they wanted to go, not with mouths to feed. That's when Kevin found home service Freedom. At the Freedom event, he saw everything the business was missing. The manuals, the systems, but more importantly, the mindset. He and his leadership team were so fired up, he said, holy s, we can scale. We can actually do this. And now Kevin's dad doesn't even have to show up. The business runs itself. Kevin's shooting for $10 million by 2028 and 25 million within 10 years. That's what happens when you get in the room with people who've already done it. You learn from them, you connect, you level up. Freedom 2025 is just two weeks away. So if you're inspired by this story and you're ready for the kind of transformation that Kevin had, go to freedomevent.com and lock in your spot. Now that's freedom event dot com. All right, back to the episode.

[Unknown]

I probably get this question of what should I do with my vehicles? They don't want to go to the company, like kick charge. Their vehicles look like crap. They're driving billboards is what they are. And one of my buddies, Cameron Harold's like, if you start parking on the two days off in the right areas, like the right Costco's that are well lit up at night, he's like, that literally grew 800 got junk to over a thousand locations. All we, we call it parking. They park at the right spots. But it's got to be a beautiful. It's not just stencils and like just, we do garage doors. It's like it's, it's a billboard and it's got to look beautiful and easy.

[Renee Milam]

To clean and memorable.

[Unknown]

Memorable. Like I don't have BBB and all my vendors and Yelp. Well, it's just simply a one garage door service and it's just, it's memorable. And the colors, you know, and you're.

[Renee Milam]

On there, you're memorable.

[Unknown]

My mask. Yeah, my. Whatever it's called. Yeah.

[Renee Milam]

No, I mean, yeah, a good, A good rebranding can do amazing things for, for the business and for advertising. So if, if you guys are thinking about it, considering it, don't hold back. It's another one of those things that maybe you're thinking it's too much at this point in time, but it'll, it'll pay back dividends in the end.

[Unknown]

So, you know, one thing we looked into and I think this is ending in a year, but electric vehicles had a huge opportunity to get credits and all kinds of stuff. What are your thoughts on electric vehicle fleets?

[Renee Milam]

Credits are still out there. Don't get me wrong. It's just like the government still has to do or just the states still have to do more. When it comes to infrastructure, everybody's scared. You know, manufacturers are putting electric vehicles out there and they're saying, oh, they're going to go this far or they're capable of this. But what hasn't been taken into account for is weather. Payloads, all that kind of stuff. So, you know, companies are scared, right. They don't want to send their driver out and have them get stuck somewhere and don't have a charge or maybe they've run out of, you know, charge before, they anticipate it happening and they're in the middle of their, whatever they're doing, right. Service or install. So I think that's the biggest thing. I think once we figure out that infrastructure problem, we get better, the vehicles get better when it comes to distance and charging. Because here in Arizona, heat does affect it, but not as bad as, let's say cold weather.

[Unknown]

Right?

[Renee Milam]

Like cold weather below 30 degrees temperatures will really zap your, your distance on a vehicle.

[Unknown]

But how many miles does a typical bigger van get? Electric vehicle?

[Renee Milam]

Well, it's empty. 170.

[Unknown]

170.

[Renee Milam]

But that's empty, right? How many vans are driving empty out there? Yeah, yeah.

[Unknown]

I've always thought we could do it. We'd get all these credits and we just. But then I'm like, man, if you run out of charge and that truck's down, I guess we're not there yet. But in the next few years we might be there.

[Renee Milam]

Absolutely.

[Unknown]

What else are you thinking? The people should know. So we talked about gas, cars, maintenance, making sure. Like the Sam, Sarah and these things they tell you when the truck needs an oil change. If you keep that stuff going, like when you're leasing it, do you get penalized for not maintaining it? Like, if the oil, if you don't get it done in time, you don't.

[Renee Milam]

Get penalized because it's, it's technically still your vehicle. So if something breaks down because you've, you know, been neglectful, it's your responsibility.

[Unknown]

Well, like if a tranny goes and it's got a hundred thousand mile hard part warranty. I remember I had a truck that had way too many miles before the oil changes and we had to go to war with you guys. This was years and years ago. Yeah, but it had a training. They're like, this is your fault. Like, or the oil. It might have been an engine, but it was like it was bad because it didn't have enough oil in it. So how do you find the right fleet manager?

[Renee Milam]

That's a difficult question. You probably would know better than I do. You've been through, right?

[Unknown]

Somebody with experience that understands vehicles and just understands how to care for them, I guess.

[Renee Milam]

Absolutely.

[Unknown]

What haven't I asked you yet?

[Renee Milam]

Well, what I wanted to talk about maybe a little bit more in depth about is like I said leasing is very similar to a finance. But what a lot of people don't realize is there's so many more financial benefits to doing it right. A lot of people say, oh, you know what, I'm just going to stay at the dealership. It's the same. It's the finance.

[Unknown]

Right.

[Renee Milam]

I got a line of credit. What's wrong with the way I'm doing it this way? Well, instead of financing it, in almost every single state, if you lease a vehicle, there's no sales tax. There's a monthly sales tax, so you don't pay interest on that. If you roll it into the the finance, you're paying interest on it or you're paying out of pocket for it. And here in Arizona, there's even additional benefit that some people are aware of and some people are not and maybe, you know, maybe don't, but I don't think I do. Vehicle, that's $12,000 gross vehicle weight or more. You don't have to pay any sales tax on it. If you lease.

[Unknown]

Is it 12,000?

[Renee Milam]

12,000.

[Unknown]

£12,000?

[Renee Milam]

12,000 GVW, yeah. Okay, so if you lease a vehicle, like even so it's usually like a 350 or up, sometimes the 250s, the half tons even can qualify for it. But if it's registered properly, that way you save all of that sales tax. You don't even have to pay a monthly sales tax.

[Unknown]

I heard some of the smartest people in the world, they buy breeze. Got one, the Mercedes, because they weigh so much and it can be depreciated. Like people are like, that's the only vehicle you should buy or lease because you got to be over £6,000 to get the benefits right for it.

[Renee Milam]

Set 179.

[Unknown]

Yes, for the 179.

[Renee Milam]

But this is just, just purely sales tax benefits. So right now, if you go out and buy a vehicle, anybody goes out and buys a vehicle, doesn't matter how much it weighs. If you're not leasing it, you're paying whatever. What is it? 8.1, 8.2 press cut. 9.3% sales tax on a $50,000 vehicle.

[Unknown]

That's a lot of money.

[Renee Milam]

That's a lot of money when you lease it. You don't have to pay that here in Arizona at all, but across the the US you still have to. You just pay a small monthly. You pay that, that percentage of sales tax on the monthly lease payment.

[Unknown]

I love it. What do you. So people are probably wondering, what's my next steps? You know, how Do I learn how to do this stuff? Because there's certain stuff that go into the accounting side of it and small businesses, sometimes it's hard to realize those things. If. Do they just reach out to you? Tell them, you know, I need five vehicles in the next year. And you'd work with them and just help them understand the tax benefits?

[Renee Milam]

Yeah, absolutely. Initially, I set up a 30 minute discovery meeting with whoever it may be, whether you have two vehicles or 500 vehicles.

[Unknown]

Right.

[Renee Milam]

To really learn, learn about, you know, what is your next goals for the 12 months, what are your heartburns.

[Unknown]

Right.

[Renee Milam]

And then just explain, you know, if you're. Some people are familiar with leasing, some are not.

[Unknown]

Right.

[Renee Milam]

We'll talk about leasing in depth. Because there's, like I said, more than just sales tax benefits, more than just lower payments, more than just no credit reporting.

[Unknown]

There you go.

[Renee Milam]

I just had a meeting with the guy today. He's got eight vehicles on his personal credit. For his business. For his business.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Renee Milam]

So right now, now he wants to go out and he wants to get a nicer house. And they're saying, well, you have $500,000 worth of debt risk on your.

[Unknown]

That is something I never even thought about.

[Renee Milam]

So by, by leasing, the line of credit stays with the leasing company. They're the lease or you become the leasee.

[Unknown]

Do I need like two years of business credit?

[Renee Milam]

You don't need two years of business credit.

[Unknown]

Right.

[Renee Milam]

So we help everybody that is a startup, you know, over three years. It's just, it's a little bit more difficult. Underwriting is going to want more paperwork if it's less than two years. Because that three year mark is kind of the aha. Where you know what, they've made it three years. They've proven that they can be successful in this business. So the bank's a little bit more lenient.

[Unknown]

Right.

Okay.

[Renee Milam]

But if you come in under two years, more than likely there is going to be, you know, they're going to want some money down and that's just to keep you in that equitable position. Because if something happens in another year and you need to sell all your vehicles, last thing you want to do is have to hand us a check over. Once we sell those vehicles and sell us, you owe us more money.

[Unknown]

So I remember I had this idea just because I've had hundreds and hundreds of people. I'm like, if I could use a one's buying power. This was hard because we had to get so many people together to make this opportunity happen, which we call jump Spark, where do they reach out to you to get to jump on a phone call?

[Renee Milam]

They can simply go on the jumpspark.com website. There's a place where they can fill out a form and it comes directly to me. And then I'll send you out my calendar and you can schedule something that works for you and I both.

[Unknown]

How, how many clients do you think if they reached out to you, that you could actually add value, like save them money and explain things? I mean, is there really anybody out there that shouldn't be reaching out?

[Renee Milam]

The only the toughest ones. I mean, everybody should reach out. Absolutely. I would say I help 99% of the people out there that reach out to me. There's a small 1% that, you know what, they're so brand new and they didn't realize what the payment was going to be on a, you know, a van with $50,000 van, 1,500 bucks.

[Unknown]

1500 bucks.

[Renee Milam]

Less than that. Less than that. But still, they weren't prepared, right? So.

[Unknown]

Well, it makes a lot of sense. It frees up cash flow. A lot of people are burying money, great money that they could use on marketing, hiring, innovation, technology, and they're tying it up into their fleet, right? This is like the first thing I learned with a great CFO is like, keep the cash flow, use the money for growth. What else am I leaving out?

[Renee Milam]

The only other thing I really kind of wanted to mention is what makes JumpSpark different than other fleet management companies, right? So, first of all, we specialize in the home service, home improvement industry, right? There's tons of different industries out there. There's municipalities, right. There's nonprofits, right. We want to focus on and hone our expertise to home service. We feel that we can really benefit them the most because of how they utilize their vehicles. So. And two, you know, what I did prior to, you know, getting a career in fleet, I spent. I got a degree in hospitality management. I've spent 20 plus years in customer service. And so I can tell you what, if you decide to become a client with us, a partner, your number goes in my phone. If you call me, and if I'm not in a meeting, I answer your call. If you text me at 6am or 10pm, I'm getting you an answer, right? If I'm keeping you there through the entire process, from sourcing to the time it gets delivered to your door, you know what's going on, even though you don't have to do it, you have an idea so you can prepare with your team. So I just want to say, I guess what makes us different is the fact that we, like I said, we're focusing in our expertise is for home service industry. Our customer service is number one.

[Unknown]

I just think we save people a ton of money. I. I really believe that people. My cousin just called me. I think you're working with Michael.

[Renee Milam]

Mike. Yeah.

[Unknown]

And I'm like, dude, you got to go through this. I'm gonna save you a bunch of money. Like, I believe in this because people ask me all the time and they don't understand their credit card. They don't understand depreciation. They don't understand, like, just morale. There's so many things of how you look.

[Renee Milam]

We get a better buy because of our fleet buying power. We're going to give them the best buy. We're going to save them the upfront sales tax. Sales tax on graphics, sales tax on the upfit. They don't have to pay any sales tax on that.

[Unknown]

Right.

[Renee Milam]

We are going to save them a ton of money.

[Unknown]

I spent 40 years perfecting my upfit to make sure that the guys are organized. It's easy to do inventory and they have everything when they show up to the home.

[Renee Milam]

And it's efficient, right?

[Unknown]

Yeah. And it's quick. You can look at it. There's the right bins. There's the tubes. Up top, we got five tubes for struts and torsion tubes and angle iron. It's just super dialed in. And I think if people understood the organization, how you function, the only time you're making money is at a customer's house. So having all the stuff, staying organized, you know, many of my guys take the client to the trucks and they look at them and they go, we're going to do business with you. Like, we've never seen a truck this organized. And that's their personal office. So I just think people. It doesn't hurt. You don't charge for a consultation.

[Renee Milam]

Absolutely not.

[Unknown]

So they. They call you up, they go on jump, spark J U M P S P A R K dot com. You'll talk to them. You'll see where they're at. I think it does take, like, reach out right away because it does take a few months. So you got to have a plan. And I, you know, it's going. We're going into budget season, and what we do is look at how many techs do we need to hire.

[Renee Milam]

Sure.

[Unknown]

And we've got a pretty big fleet, so there's certain times we run the trucks a little longer because we need to hire a bunch. So we got to take those new ones and there's certain times we want. I'd love to turn them in at the perfect time. It's just for a company that's growing like ours, 30% a year. It's hard because there's. Look, people have accidents, people quit, people have weddings, treatment fleets are. It's a. Thank God we got the right woman in the fleet department finally. She is so good. She comes with a vast knowledge, much bigger company and managing a fleet of our. I think we got 500 guys in the field now, so. And then you got my Dodge TRX that I don't even drive. But part of my deal going into the next time I sell the company is they pay off the truck, I get to keep it and they give me a new one.

[Renee Milam]

There you go.

[Unknown]

So what's your favorite book?

[Renee Milam]

Elevate.

[Unknown]

Yeah, Elevate. There you go. I love it.

[Renee Milam]

So there's another one too. The Art of Closing.

[Unknown]

The Art of Closing.

[Renee Milam]

Antonel. Yeah.

[Unknown]

What do you like about it?

[Renee Milam]

You know, when I first started in the fleet industry, there was a book, we called it like a book club at the office. And we would read certain chapters each time and come back and say, hey, what was the aha part? What you really took away with it? He just, he. He just made it. You know, I wasn't used to reaching out to sweet, sweet people, right. I was used to reaching out to the operations team, right. To get things done. And so he just had a lot of really good information about how to get in front of people, how to Talk to Like CEOs, CEOs, presidents, right. Who make those kind of decisions because they are on a different level and they have a different, you know, talk path. So that book really helped me out my career rise career for that.

[Unknown]

So, you know, there's a good book. It's like the best salesman in the world by. What's his last name? He, I think he sold. He's the record setter for selling all the most cars. Have you ever heard of that book?

[Renee Milam]

No. Huh.

[Unknown]

Yeah, it's, it's. He's long since passed away and retired, but he was in the 60s and 70s, he used to sell seven cars a day. His record was like 14 in a day.

[Renee Milam]

That's a lot.

[Unknown]

And he just said I build relationships, I get to know the families, I give them a good shake, I treat them right, I send them birthday cards. You know, I make it an experience. I'm looking out for them. It's not pressure Tactics about trust. I think that's the deal with you is like if nothing else, people could get some information and understand this is what it would look like. And planning is key here. Guys like you call up Renee and you need to figure out when you need the vehicles. Going and buying them at the last minute is going to cost an extra 10 grand. I mean, it just doesn't make sense.

[Renee Milam]

You're going to get what's on the lot. It may be a low, a low trim level. It may not.

[Unknown]

Right.

[Renee Milam]

You may have options on there that you don't need. You might need a vehicle.

[Unknown]

Yeah. Like four wheel drive when you don't need it. Or not. A four wheel drive if you're in like for, for me, Flagstaff. Right, right.

[Renee Milam]

Or you're getting an Excel instead of an xl, you know, an xlt, which you don't need.

[Unknown]

Right.

[Renee Milam]

Need all the extra bells and whistles. It's a fleet vehicle.

[Unknown]

Right.

[Renee Milam]

Because all of them are come with the same safety anyways. Minimum.

[Unknown]

Right.

[Renee Milam]

Safety stuff. So proactively is definitely. Yeah. There's never too early to schedule a time to talk to me. It may not, you may not be ready to go after we talk. And that's okay. I have lots of clients who like Renee. I still need to do this touch back with me in two months, whatever it may be.

[Unknown]

But what are some reasons people wouldn't want to work with you right away? What are they, what are they waiting on? They're probably waiting to figure out how many vehicles are going to need or hiring or whatnot.

[Renee Milam]

And they want to talk to their cpa. They want to. They're looking at their budgets.

[Unknown]

How often do you get on a phone with a cpa?

[Renee Milam]

Very rarely does a CPA call me. I mean I do have, I do have clients who come back to me and say my CPA said this or my CPA said that.

[Unknown]

But that's the biggest thing is understanding these write offs and cash flow. I mean it's really a product of controller, cpa, CFO that understand. I don't know anybody out of ghetto. My buddy, Eco plumber. Like all these guys all over the country that buy their vehicles you always lease. It's the right thing to do. The smartest companies are doing this. You might think you got to figure it out. Why would I pay this payment if I was talking about cost versus value? Like, yeah, did you find a better price? But what's going to happen when you, when we got to show up every six months to come fix it because it broke and you missed another day of work. And you might be paying less upfront, but when the. It's always in the shop and the morale and people quit because of this, I didn't know the number one question I was going to get is do I get a new vehicle? It's. It's for real. And all of a sudden your tickets go up, conversion rate goes up, happier clients. You look amazing on the road, so. Well, I appreciate you, Renee. Let's just close this out. Maybe we didn't talk about something. Maybe there's something you just wanted to say to, to the audience to get us.

[Renee Milam]

I just want to say it doesn't matter whether you need one vehicle or you need a hundred. Our goal is to make it a seamless and easy process for you and you're going to get the same level of customer service whether it's 1 or 100. So.

[Unknown]

So go to jumpspark.com and book an appointment with Renee. Thank you.

[Renee Milam]

I just want to say one other thing. Freedom 25.

[Unknown]

That's where it's at. Freedom 25.

[Renee Milam]

Be there. If anybody comes in and sees me and mentions that you heard the podcast, you're going to get a special prize.

[Tommy Mello]

Special prize.

[Unknown]

Freedom September in Vegas. Thanks, Renee.

[Renee Milam]

Thanks, Tommy.

[Unknown]

All right. Hey there.

[Tommy Mello]

Thanks for tuning into the podcast today. Before I let you go, I want to let everybody know that Elevate is.

[Unknown]

Out and ready to buy.

[Tommy Mello]

I can share with you how attracted a winning team of over 700 employees in over 20 states. The insights in this book are powerful and can be applied to any business or organization. It's a real game changer for anyone looking to build and develop a high performing team like over here at A1 garage door service. So if you want to learn the secrets that help me transfer my team from stealing the toilet paper to a group of 700 plus employees rowing in the same direction, head over to elevateandwin.com podcast and grab a copy of the book. Thanks again for listening and we'll catch.

[Unknown]

Up with you next time on the podcast.