The estimate must account for the journey people need

My first transport job was in a costing office, comparing the service described in a customer proposal with the resources the operator expected to use. I joined Yushervan Fleet Services in August 1997 after completing a transport-management degree at Lianshervan College. The figures looked precise, but I soon learnt that the difficult part was understanding the work behind them. A driver’s waiting time, a vehicle’s return journey or a changed shift could disappear from an estimate without disappearing from the operation. I began asking dispatch colleagues to explain a route before I tried to explain its cost.

I moved into fleet finance in January 2003. The company was replacing vehicles while extending its employer contracts, and I worked on the cash implications of buying and leasing. I learnt to distinguish a lower initial payment from a lower overall cost. The questions concerned timing, obligations and flexibility as much as the quoted price. A vehicle could be affordable in the month it arrived and still create a difficult commitment if the customer’s service changed. I prepared comparisons for people with authority to approve the decision, rather than treating my analysis as that authority.

Procurement responsibility followed in January 2009. I now worked directly with suppliers and operating colleagues on specifications, delivery schedules and the support needed after a vehicle entered service. The role made the limitations of a financial comparison more concrete. Two offers could look similar while creating different demands on maintenance, driver familiarity or spare-vehicle arrangements. I wanted the reasons for a choice written clearly enough that a colleague could understand them when the original buyer was no longer in the room. The purchase mattered, but so did the years of service it made possible.

Yunravelle recruited me as commercial director in January 2015. I became responsible for employer relationships and the terms under which we committed fleet and people. The company’s clients wanted reliable transport at a predictable price; employees needed a service that matched the practical beginning and end of their shifts. Those requirements did not always arrive in the same conversation. I spent time with operating leaders and client representatives on how a contract would handle changes, rather than assuming the original schedule would remain sufficient for several years.

January 2020 brought the CEO appointment and my first executive director seat. The founder family retained a majority holding, employees held a minority interest and a non-executive chair led the board. I had to bring together the commercial choices, the operating capability and the use of capital across the business. My finance background remained useful, but I was no longer presenting an isolated comparison for somebody else to decide. I was responsible for the direction of the company and for explaining why a decision served the business over time.

The four-site shuttle redesign taught me to keep the passenger visible in an employer contract. Some employees were reaching the boarding points after the scheduled departure because their shift exit took longer than the original brief assumed. The route had not become longer, but the service had become inadequate for those people. We agreed a changed departure pattern and standby capacity with the employer, including the additional cost. I wanted the revised promise to be funded and understood, rather than left to drivers to improvise around at the end of a working day.

Our electric-bus pilot required a different kind of restraint. Eight of twelve vehicles completed their assigned winter duties as planned; four needed another charging window. That did not make the technology unsuitable for our business, but it meant the original assignment could not simply be copied across the fleet. We changed the duties and retained backup. I depended on operating and technical colleagues for their assessments, while taking responsibility for the pace of investment and the account we gave the board. A vehicle count alone would have concealed the useful lesson.

The mixed purchase-and-lease renewal was similarly a choice with a cost, not an ingenious way to avoid one. Keeping RMB18 million of initial cash meant accepting lease payments that had to be met over five years. I wanted the board to understand both sides. That is the perspective I would bring to another company: financial discipline that begins with the service being promised, respects the specialists who make it possible and remains candid about the obligations created by an apparently convenient choice.

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