Mercury Fleet Replacement Planning Services

<body bgcolor=ffffff text=000000 link=0000cc vlink=990099 alink=cc0000> <center> <table width="620"> <tr> <td align="center"> <h2><font color="#0000CC"><b><font face="Arial">Mercury Fleet Consultants - </font></b> <font face="Arial"><b>Replacement Planning Services and Forecasting Software</b></font></font></h2> </td> </tr> </table> <table width="620"> <tr> <td align="center"><font face="arial" color="c0c0c0"> <strong><br> this page is being forwarded</strong></font><br> <font face="arial" color="ffff00"><a href="http://www.mercury-assoc.net">click here!</a></font> <font face="arial" color="c0c0c0">if you do not have a frames compliant browser</font></td> </tr> </table> <br><br> <table width="620"> <tr> <td width="100%" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" align="justify"> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><font face="Arial"><b>Replacement Planning Services and Forecasting Software</b><br> <br> Virtually every public and private organization in the world that has a fleet operation invests significant recourses, both financial and personnel, towards the timely replacement of vehicles and equipment. Regardless if the assets are used for the utility management, student transportation, street maintenance, state and local government, waste disposal, military defense, rail, parcel delivery, or local transit services, the costs of replacing these resources can equal to millions of dollars.<br> <br> Many organizations attempt to project the near and long-term vehicle (and/or other fixed asset) replacement costs, depreciation costs, residual values, funding requirements under alternative financing approaches, and replacement charge-back rates. However, this is a fairly complex task, due to the intricate quantitative mathematical, economic, and accounting methodologies involved in developing a replacement plan, but also the realities of political environments and organizational cultures that can impact the decision to replace vehicles and equipment in an appropriate time frame. <br> The fleet management consultants at Mercury understand these issues intimately, which is we have assisted many organizations in determining the best way to finance the replacement of capital assets such as vehicles and motorized equipment, and to assist them in managing a systematic asset replacement program on an ongoing basis. We have found over a period of almost 20 years of management consulting that the single biggest impediment to replacing vehicles and other capital assets in a timely manner is not a lack of understanding of life cycle costing principles and their impact on the optimization of asset service lives and replacement schedules, but a lack of funds to retire and replace assets in accordance with life cycle costing-based policies or guidelines. This lack of funds stems from the fact that the aggregate, year-to-year replacement costs of most inventories of vehicles and other assets are variable – sometimes markedly so – and some asset financing approaches are more effective than others in securing funds to accommodate peaks and valleys in replacement spending needs.<br> <br> As such Mercury has developed asset replacement planning software that provides the following features. </font></p> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"> </p> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111"> <tr> <td> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"> </td> <td> <ul> <li> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><font face="Arial">Definition of asset replacement guidelines and planning parameters by type or class of asset, including replacement cycle in years and miles or hours of use; purchase price; purchase price inflation rate; debt financing term (the maximum period of time over which the acquisition of an asset can be financed); and debt financing interest rate. These parameters can be defined and stored in the program for an unlimited number of asset classes. In our experience, most organizations categorize their inventories of fleet vehicles and equipment with anywhere from 20 to 150 classes.</font></li> </ul> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"> </td> <td> <ul> <li> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><font face="Arial">Development of a 20-year asset replacement plan that projects future replacement dates and costs by individual asset, using the user-defined parameters above and an inventory of these assets that is imported to the program from the user’s fleet management or asset management system. The maximum size of the inventory of assets for which a replacement plan can be developed is unlimited. A good replacement plan should also computes year-by-year depreciation costs for each asset in the inventory and asset residual value each time an asset is replaced during the 20-year planning period. Residual values are computed using a mathematical asset market value depreciation function derived from industry data.</font></li> </ul> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"> </td> <td> <ul> <li> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><font face="Arial">Computation of replacement cost charge-back rates by asset under a replacement revolving or reserve fund and charge-back system financing approach for the next fiscal year.</font></li> </ul> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"> </td> <td> <ul> <li> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><font face="Arial">Computation of principal and interest charges by asset and by year under a lease-purchase financing approach.</font></li> </ul> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"> </td> <td> <ul> <li> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><font face="Arial"> Quantification of aggregate asset replacement funding requirements by year for the 20-year planning period, under three replacement financing approaches; cash, revolving fund, and lease purchasing.</font></li> </ul> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"> </td> <td> <ul> <li> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><font face="Arial"> Determination of optimal reserve fund starting balance and of any requirements for future infusions of cash to the fund to maintain revolving fund solvency and self sufficiency.</font></li> </ul> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"> </td> <td> <ul> <li> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><font face="Arial">Sensitivity testing of analysis results through the modification of all key planning and analysis assumption which are stored in a look-up table.</font></li> </ul> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"> </td> <td> <ul> <li> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><font face="Arial">Graphical displays of all analysis results.</font></li> </ul> </td> </tr> </table> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><font face="Arial"><br> In addition to providing asset replacement and financial forecasting solutions, we offer comprehensive fleet management consulting. The following are some of the vehicle and equipment replacement planning services.<span style="font-weight: 400"><br>  </span></font></p> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111"> <tr> <td> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"> </td> <td> <ul> <li> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-weight: 400">Development of a Fleet Replacement Fund </span> </font></li> </ul> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"> </td> <td> <ul> <li> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-weight: 400">Review of Existing Replacement Plan Criteria</span></font></li> </ul> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"> </td> <td> <ul> <li> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-weight: 400">Multi-Year Fleet Replacement Planning Services</span></font></li> </ul> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"> </td> <td> <ul> <li> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-weight: 400">Audit of Fleet Replacement Fund Balance and Utilization</span></font></li> </ul> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"> </td> <td> <ul> <li> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-weight: 400">Develop Fleet Replacement Cycles and Scheduling Services</span></font></li> </ul> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"> </td> <td> <ul> <li> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-weight: 400">Establish Alternative Funding Sources for Timely Replacement</span></font></li> </ul> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"> </td> <td> <ul> <li> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-weight: 400">Lease Versus Buy Analysis</span></font></li> </ul> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"> </td> <td> <ul> <li> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-weight: 400">Employee Mileage Reimbursement Feasibility / Replacement Program Alternatives</span></font></li> </ul> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"> </td> <td> <ul> <li> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-weight: 400">Vehicle and Equipment Replacement Planning Software</span></font></li> </ul> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"> </td> <td> <ul> <li> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-weight: 400">Inventory Valuation Service</span></font></li> </ul> </td> </tr> </table> <p style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"> </td> </tr> </table> </center> <div align="center"> <center> <table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="3" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#111111"> <tr> <td><font size="2" face="Arial"> <a target="_self" href="http://www.mercury-assoc.net">home</a></font></td> <td><font size="2" face="Arial"> <a target="_self" href="http://www.mercury-assoc.net/services.htm">fleet services</a></font></td> <td><font size="2" face="Arial"> <a target="_self" href="http://www.mercury-assoc.net/solutions.asp">fleet solutions</a></font></td> <td><font size="2" face="Arial"> <a target="_self" href="http://www.mercury-assoc.net/aboutus.asp">consultant staff</a></font></td> <td> <font face="Arial" size="2"> <a target="_self" href="http://www.mercury-assoc.net/news.asp">fleet consulting news</a></font></td> <td><font size="2" face="Arial"> <a target="_self" href="http://www.mercury-assoc.net/contactus.htm">contact us</a></font></td> </tr> </table> </center> </div> <p style="margin-top: 0; 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