Fleet manager burnout peaks as EV complexity bites
Overtime and stress-related sick days are an industry-wide issue for teams spearheading the UK’s transition to electric vehicles.
Fleet management has become so complex that it’s causing staff burnout and risks a skills shortage without urgent change, the Association of Fleet Professionals (AFP) has warned.
Lorna McAtear, the organisation’s vice chair, told Autocar that fleet managers are “trailblazing” new technology, requiring new expertise in areas such as battery chemistry, electricity supply and volatile regulations, while spending additional time bringing drivers up to speed with EVs.
“The days of giving out a key to a diesel and saying ‘here you go, your vehicle’s parked over there’ have absolutely gone,” she said.
“There’s a convergence of technology, transport and energy as three separate industries, and the fleet manager is smack bang in the middle having to deal with it.
“We’ve become more strategic fleet managers, and yet the expectation is we still do the traditional service, maintenance, repairs, purchasing and other admin that goes with [managing a fleet].”
With generous company car tax breaks in place until 2030, fleet adoption of EVs is comfortably ahead of the wider UK market.
Almost half (47%) of all business contract hire (BCH) cars operated by members of industry body the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA) were battery electric at the end of 2025.
That’s almost half a million electric cars and doesn’t include salary sacrifice vehicles, which are even more heavily influenced by the CO2-weighted benefit-in-kind tax regime and almost all EVs or PHEVs as a result.
However, McAtear added, with shorter product launch cycles, AFP members are increasingly finding themselves “beta testing” new vehicle software, often facing long waits for over-the-air updates to fix faults and dealing with increased out-of-hours driver enquiries.
Fleets’ EV strategies are also at risk of falling out of alignment with regulations that can change with little warning. That’s doubly complicated if they’re managing vehicles across countries with different timelines, she said.
Against the backdrop of “yearly” crises, including the Covid pandemic, volatile energy prices and semiconductor shortages, AFP members report workloads that are often spilling over into evenings and weekends, resulting in increased cases of burnout and sick leave – without necessarily having someone who can cover for them.
“Salaries aren’t necessarily moving with the level of responsibility and workload. There’s a genuine problem that we haven’t got enough fleet managers coming through, so we have a skills shortage coming up.” McAtear continued.
The AFP is trying to attract new staff and advises having at least one administrative staff member per 500 cars, in addition to the fleet manager, to deal with the complexity of the role.
It is raising fleets’ concerns with policy makers; is offering members advice about managing workloads, career development and speaking up internally’ and provides a WhatsApp group where managers can talk privately about the issues they face.
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