Episode 125: 100 Best Fleets Interview with Facundo Tassara

Hey, welcome back for another episode of the Fleet Success Show. I'm your host, Josh Turley, and joining me today is esteemed guest, former Fleet Success Summit speaker, Facundo Tesara. How are you?

I'm great. Super happy to be here.

Yeah, it's been a fun ride. And, you know, just recently announced that you joined the team here at RTA. So we're super excited about that. But for our listeners, maybe somebody didn't come to your— our Summit speech, maybe they're not familiar with your game. Give them a little background story. What's the Facundo story?

So much like most fleet managers, got into fleet by accident. Started needing a part-time job at my dad's mechanic shop and was there for 12 years and learned to operate an automotive business, learned to I started a detailing shop, turned it into a body shop cuz not too many people wanna get their cars detailed in February in Virginia.

Right.

So turned it into a body shop and then decided to get my master's. And when I did that, it's kind of interesting the way it all happened. Got recruited by the FBI. That didn't end up working out. Thank God that didn't. And so I was a little bummed. Yeah. Did a, did a Google search, something along the lines of government and automotive. And then this job popped up, uh, fleet manager, City of Ormond Beach. I read the job description. I was like, wow, this sounds a lot like what I'm studying.

Yeah.

Master's in public administration and what I've been doing in automotive. Perfect way to marry them. Um, so ended up taking that gig. Um, love that. That was 2 years. And then, um, went to work for the City of Norfolk, Virginia. Spent 4 years there. And, um, that was really awesome. I mean, the timing for that with alternative fuels and electric vehicles. And so, uh, started working a lot with the private sector to bring in different, uh, organizations that were doing different creative things. And so I learned about some, uh, companies on the private sector and then joined some tech startups for 2 years. I mean, sort of for 4 years, 2 different organizations, about 4 years each. And spent a lot of time helping some tech startups develop their technologies for fleets. And what's interesting is you have so many tech entrepreneurs out there that have really awesome ideas, but they really have no idea how to make it fit the industry that they want to penetrate. And so that's where I came in and helped them develop, you know, kind of take the technology and, you know, translate KPIs and how does a metric need to look when a fleet manager looks at it or when a city manager looks at it. So spent some time doing that. And, and here we are.

Well, cool.

Yeah.

Well, I think that's where, you know, I first met you at GFX. You were speaking on millennials, managing millennials in the shop. You and—

oh gosh, Sarah Burnham.

Sarah Burnham was definitely on there.

Mario Guzman.

And Mario.

And I don't remember who the host was because you three were panelists. Yeah. Yeah. So no, actually, I was the host. They were on the panel and the other guy was named Matt. Forgetting his name. He worked at an organization in the state of Washington.

Okay.

Uh, yeah, and I was the host, and I took a selfie during the middle of the, um, the session there just because I was like, I wanted to show that everybody that we were millennials, so I had to take my cell phone out.

Young enough to do a selfie.

I found it the other day, actually.

That's funny. Um, well, and, and we've gone back for years, you know. I know, you know, circling around on the, uh, the trade show circuit and And obviously had you out at the Fleet Success Summit. So it's been a lot of fun getting to know you. And we share, for those who don't know, a very common passion, which is smoking meat and grilling meat.

Yes.

And you just recently, you picked up a pretty amazing cooking utensil. I don't know what you call that cooking apparatus.

I don't know what you call it either.

But it's amazing.

So, I mean, I'll tell you what it is officially in Spanish.

Okay.

In Argentine Spanish, because we have like a little—

naturally.

So it's a parrilla de campo. So it's a grill that you see often in the countryside. So you drive out in the country and it's, you know, they have dirt, grass, whatever. And then they just start throwing coals underneath and it's like a little grill with, you know, maybe 5 or 6-inch legs on it with like a second level tier and starts to get a little fancy. So I started, I bought one of those because it's pretty big. It's about, I think it's about 2 feet deep by 6 or 7 feet wide.

Yeah.

The reason I bought it is because I cook for my neighborhood. So they'll bring out, like last time, I live in Jacksonville, Florida, just south. When the Jags played, I can't remember who, I think it was like maybe Kansas City last year. I did a barbecue for the, so people just started bringing, actually no, I went to go out and buy the meat, Argentine style, cooked it for them. And I had something different last year. I was like, that's not gonna work anymore. So I had to get that. I just received it. Maybe a couple weeks ago. Haven't been able to use it, but I'm super excited.

Yeah, yeah, I saw it. It looks pretty awesome. I don't have a spot for that in my backyard, right? But it looks pretty cool.

I made a spot for it in my backyard. I actually dug a hole, put in pavers. Yeah, so now I have like a paver pad, I guess you could say. Yeah, the— I kind of broke it to my wife the other day. I was like, if I like it, I'm gonna make a concrete table so I can make it now a table with this thing on there.

So you can like, you know, actually instead of getting down on your knees to cook the meat.

Exactly. Yeah. So she, she was just like, just make sure it's organized and clean. Right.

And pretty. Yeah, exactly.

It's gotta look nice.

Exactly.

Yeah.

So don't make it an ugly concrete table, you know?

Yeah. That'll be tough, but whatever.

Concrete's concrete, right? You just can't paint the thing cuz you're gonna be running charcoal on it.

Oh, maybe I can like put bricks around it, you know, a little brick facade.

Yeah. There you go. Like a pizza oven kind of a thing. Yeah. But, but But it's Argentinian asado. Well, that's an idea.

Maybe I can have the table with a pizza oven on the side of it.

That's brilliant. Tell your wife we've got this figured out. Next time we're in Florida though, it's on. It's on, right? Argentinian asado.

Everybody at my house.

It's going to be awesome.

Yeah.

So I wanted to talk today a little bit. One of the things I love about your experience has obviously been your experience with 100 Best Fleets.

Right.

And the success you've had going through that application process and not just at one location, but actually taking it and doing it at one spot and then another. Um, can you share with our listeners, you know, some of your experience, you know, what, what it was like going through the application process, uh, what your results were, you know, I guess how many times you applied, where you applied, that kind of thing.

Yeah, I think all in I applied something like, um, 6 or 7 times. A couple of those actually I had applied and then I took the new job or moved on.

Yeah.

But it was something like 6 or 7 times altogether. I remember the first time doing it in the city of Ormond Beach. They had never actually— that both of the times that I applied in Ormond Beach and Norfolk, they had never done it before.

Okay. So you're the first at both locations.

Yeah. Yeah. And it's been— it's great. Every time I go back, I take a picture of the banners that they're adding. So that's a lot of fun. But so when I applied the first time, I'll go back a little bit further. Even before I applied, the way that I learned about it was because Tom Johnson was having an event in the city of Fort Lauderdale. Okay. So a couple months in, I went down there and, you know, listened and talked to people. And I told Tom, you know, I said, Tom, who do I need to know in this industry? Introduce me to anybody I need to know. So he kind of took me under his wing and introduced me to a bunch of people. You know, and I think while I was only in the government fleet industry for directly as a fleet manager for 7 or so years, I loved it. I did a lot of homework. I read, I enjoyed reading the magazines, you know, got to know, you know, a lot of people. So I think in terms of the knowledge I got during that time was much more than just the time that I was there. But anyway, so when I applied, I was like, wow, this is, there's a lot going on here. And then what I realized was there's a lot going on here that's not going on in the city of Ormond Beach. A lot of benchmarking, a lot of KPIs. And I knew that I couldn't just take a KPI from my neighbor, for example, and just apply it to my fleet because that would be a mistake. So it would be okay, well, approach this from the perspective of general KPIs in the industry. And then start to benchmark myself. So going through there, there are a lot of things that I didn't have the first time around. And so I took it as an opportunity to say, okay, well, what I'm going to do is I'm going to say what I'm going to do now that I'm learning about these. And so here was, you know, let's just, I'll use a schedule to unschedule work as the example. The target was 80%. I was nowhere near that for scheduling work, but I knew that for me to do that, That was my target and I needed to start it. Okay. I'm going to start at targeting 60% and then, you know, 65 or whatever and work my way towards there. And here was the way that I was going to do that.

Right.

So that's what I, what I started doing for, for the application process at the beginning, because if I actually only had to take the things that I was actually doing when I got there, I would have left a lot of the application blank.

Yeah.

So, you know, just building on it year after year. And, um, I mean, the results spoke for themselves because you could see, you know, we were moving up the charts.

Um, so first time you applied Ormond Beach, where did you guys end up ranking?

I think it was 80-something.

Okay.

I don't remember exactly.

So you got another 8— like, you broke into the top 100? Yeah, you know, pretty far down the list, but you broke into the top 100?

Yes.

First time ever doing it, right?

Yeah, first time ever doing it.

Okay.

And then the next time you applied I think it was a little bit further. I'm forgetting the numbers, but I remember the numbers that are sticking out to me was I think I went from in one streak. I think this was Norfolk actually was the first time I applied. It was like 55, then 44, then 19.

Okay.

And then I left. Uh, yeah.

Got it on the right trajectory.

Yeah. Mic drop. Just mic drop.

Sail off into the sunset.

Yeah, exactly. Just got into the top 20 and I'm out. Um, But, uh, and I don't remember, I think Nor, uh, uh, Ormond Beach was something like, I think it was in the '80s and then I improved and then I left. Yeah. Um, uh, so that was, and it was, you know, the benchmarking that I was doing, it was okay, then I could refer to what I did the previous year.

Yeah.

And then it's like, okay, well there was a little bit of a difference or maybe there wasn't, maybe it's worse, but here's why it's worse.

Yeah.

Um, so I noticed that as long as I was documenting anything good or bad, and if it was bad, well, here's what I'm going to do to improve. It was good. Here's, here's how I improved. Um, so I think that helped.

Yeah. So, I mean, here you are, you've never applied before and obviously, you know, the difference, let's talk about City of Ormond Beach, never applied before. How did you get over that initial hesitation? You've never done it. You don't know what to expect. You've got this application out in front of you that, as you said, most of it would have been left blank. How did you make the decision like, well, I'm just going to apply and see what happens? Like, what went through your head as you were doing that?

There was a little bit of the fear of being rejected, maybe, I guess. And I think it was just a matter of— I'm a big soccer fan. You know this. You know, I coach soccer and it's— I always tell, you know, the little 8-year-olds that I coach and even the middle school boys that I coach. If you don't shoot on goal, you're not going to score. Yeah, you can— we can play really well, but if we take no shots, we're not scoring. Yeah. And so that's kind of the way that I approached it was if I don't give it a go, even, you know, maybe I'll apply and it'll be like nothing happened. No honorable mention, not top 100. Whatever, but at least I have an exercise that I went through. So there was that fear at the beginning, but I just said, let's do it. And I think one of the things that helped me was I started doing it right after the application process opened up because there was a lot of work, especially the first go-around. So I had some time to do it in between the job.

And it's like a 2-month application window. So I mean, it's not open for a long time, but It definitely, you know, takes a little bit of work that first time.

Yeah, and especially— yeah, exactly, the first time, and you don't know, you know, what exactly they want to see, um, and, you know, how to document things. And maybe you'll say something and you don't have to document things, um, but because of that conversation that I had had with Tom Johnson before I applied, yeah, he said anything you can say, try give some sort of support for it. So I kind of took it as like, okay, this is like doing my master's all over again. Like, I can't just say something, I have to show how I'm doing it, right? Um, so that— I think that also helps.

So, you know, anyway, you talk about this fear of rejection. Did you worry at all? Like, let's say you applied and you didn't get placed, maybe, you know, for your own internal rejection, you'd be disappointed, but were you afraid of what others would think? Because you didn't place.

Yeah. Because I had also shared internally that I had applied.

That you were doing it, right?

Yeah.

And so now there's like this pressure of, yeah, hey, how did it go?

Exactly.

Yeah.

And I didn't just share it with my team. I shared it with anybody that I could tell.

Yeah.

Um, you know, um, so there was a little bit of pressure going into it. Um, you know, and I, I think that the pressure could have been used in different ways had we not placed. It was like, well, help me. Improve on the things by whatever it is, right? Giving me money to improve the technology in the shop.

Yeah.

Or if we did place, help me improve to work our way up or to maintain.

So let's talk about that. So you, you apply, you place, what happens next? You know, did, how did it, how did you see a benefit from the application process other than just your internal clock of, okay, now I can do a little bit better than what I did last year and measuring my own benchmarks?

I'm pausing because I have a story actually I can tell you about, um, that, but I'm trying to think of, let's see if I, I'll just tell you the story. All right. Okay. So, so in the city of Norfolk, um, when I had applied for the first time and I did the same thing, I was like, okay, well, it worked at Ormond Beach. I'm going to do the same thing. I'm going to apply and I'm going to tell people that I applied. Um, much bigger organization. Um, you know, so it felt like the, the magnifying glass was even bigger on me that time.

Yeah.

So I applied, we placed, um, I think it was, I think it was 55th or something like that. Shortly after that, um, I was at an event where I, I, I don't know if at the time I was already the Tide Area Fleet Manager Association president or something like that. I don't remember if I was president then or I was about to be. And a vendor shows up and he's like, hey, I've got this CNG Honda Civic that you ordered. Like, you know, here it is, taking delivery of it at this event. You know, great publicity for him. I was like, uh, that was actually canceled. And so it was like, oh my gosh. So there was like, okay, well, the other ones have already been delivered to your shop and I knew you were going to be here. So I think it was like 5 or 6. So what happened? So I knew that I had to do something. So I was like, okay, well, I'm going to ask for forgiveness. Why? Because I've established that we're doing things and that, you know, we're being ranked and people are recognizing us and my city had already recognized me for placing. So I called the deputy city manager and I was like, hey Sabrina, I'm calling to ask forgiveness. And she was like, what happened? So I told her, you know, we, it wasn't, it wasn't approved. We were talking about it. We started the purchasing process. It didn't go through for whatever reason. Uh, and then now I have delivery. Um, so it was basically like, I'm calling to ask you for like $250,000, pretty much. And she's like, okay, well, you know, it's good with me, but you need to ask Marcus, the city manager. So we have this, uh, I go up to the 11th floor. And so they were just coming out of a meeting and, and Winter, another city manager, he's like, oh, you're here for this pitch. And he's like, oh, this is going to be awesome. Hold on, I'll be back. And so Sabrina's there, you know, we're at the 11th floor overlooking the city. Marcus comes out and he's like, hey, okay, so you got a pitch for me, go ahead. So I tell him what happens and he's like, okay. And he's like, and he tells me this, he's like, because I know that you're actually helping improve and it's being documented, the fleet, he's like, you'll have the money in your account tomorrow. And so just that example of taking the application process and how it started to help us. Now it was actually like, this is for real. Like, if that hadn't happened, I mean, we were making progress. Right. But I think that solidified the process and being recognized. Like, when you went through the list, you were seeing names of other major organizations like the city, you know, New York City, like massive fleets. And we're on this list with them. And so that just helped tremendously from there on.

Because it adds like a sense of, you know, definitely credibility, legitimacy to your organization, maybe even a little bit of pressure. We heard that from Tracy, right? As I mean, Las Vegas is very competitive. And so for them, you know, they didn't want to not place, but it adds this, you know, pressure of like, hey, we want to keep being worthy of that list, right?

There's almost like a gamification to it too.

A little bit. Yeah.

Like it's like it's internal. And then it's also you just start to develop friendships with colleagues in the organization. It's like, hey, like we're going to beat you this year. You know, I had plenty of times where I would talk to colleagues out there and be like, hey, we're coming after you, right?

Like, you're on my list. You know, I just want a place better than you this year.

Exactly. Yeah. So it helped a lot.

So if I'm hearing the benefit, right, the benefit is that, you know, not only gives your organization some credibility, but it also gives you as a fleet manager, not necessarily ammunition or, you know, political capital is probably the right way to say that. But 100%, this idea of You know, you can make a mistake or, you know, if you get people that start believing in you, right? And as a leader, that's really all it takes is you need people, you know, leaders doesn't matter what your position is in an organization. As long as people are willing to follow you, you're a leader, right? And so I'm hearing you speak and I'm hearing this, you know, it almost sets you apart as a leader in the organization, somebody who is trying to do things and make improvements and people are willing to follow you because of your vision and what you believe in.

Yeah. And just like any other organization, you know, both, particularly the city of Norfolk, they, there was almost like this, uh, from the city manager's office, like we have to keep an eye on these guys because they're not, they're just spending money and they're not, you know, and so once, exactly. So once I showed them like, look, we're, we're bringing in a process, we're careful with what we're doing. you know, we're thinking about the future. I'm trying to, I think the thing that they really liked was I've read all kinds of stuff about the city and what the vision is, what Marcus's vision was. And I said, I changed our policy so I can incorporate those things into mine. And I think that was the magical moment where they were like, okay, we can take them off the, we have to watch them.

They're off the naughty list.

Yeah, they're off the naughty list. Um, and we can focus on something else or somebody else. Um, and so that gave me the ability to, you know, have my freedom. I mean, the— my office was on the other side of town, and they didn't really bug me. I mean, we had the check-ins, but yeah, um, just keep doing what you're doing, you know, we're pleased with what you're doing. And I think it was that whole mentality was established, you know, from my office all the way to the shop floor. Everybody was on the same page. Yeah.

So a couple of questions, we kind of wrap. Um, what advice would you have, you know, for maybe you're talking to your younger self, first time you ever applied, uh, maybe there's somebody out there who is sitting on the fence, you know, they're not quite sure, uh, this feels like it's going to be a lot of work. Deadline is here in 10 days. Um, you know, or maybe they're thinking about it for next year. What advice would you give to that person who's on the fence with this whole thing or, you know, just hasn't applied yet?

Yeah, it is a lot of work, but you don't have to talk about every single benchmark. Like if you've watched some of the webinars that Nafa had put on about, you know, the different accountability and all these different things, you don't have to hit everything. Like if there's things that you're not doing, maybe you have a target in mind, talk about what you're going to do for that target. Because if there's— if, if you're applying and you're responding to everything, yeah, people are gonna be like, I'm not sure about this, especially your first time. Yeah, for your first time, you gotta answer for everything. I'm not sure. So, um, don't be afraid to say you don't have the answer.

Don't leave it blank. But leave it blank.

Yeah, yeah.

But hey, we're not doing anything with this right now.

Exactly. But you know, you can say like, we don't have a policy about this regarding this particular thing. But this is a target and here's, you know, where we're going to start. Maybe you're going to— I think I'd used 80% earlier on and maybe you're going to start with the target at 60%. You're going to work towards 65, 70, 75 and work towards the 80. Document it and say a little bit about how you're going to do that. You don't have to have an answer for everything. Nobody has an answer for everything.

But maybe cast a little vision and say, this is where I'd like to go. We don't have this yet. You know, I've talked about the power of yet a lot, but yeah.

And one other thing that's interesting is that if it's your first time applying, Usually the 100 Best Fleets is like reflecting on your last year.

Yeah.

But if it's your first time applying and you're getting to know the people or the judges are getting to know your organization, you can go a little bit further back and say, hey, this happened last year or a year before. And the reason I'm sharing this is because this establishes the foundation of my fleet. This is who I am. This is what we're working on. So you can share, you can go a little bit further back in that first year, especially the that first time you apply.

Yeah.

But, you know, I guess the underlying message here is it is some work, but don't be afraid and you don't have to have an answer for everything.

Yeah, that's great advice. Um, what are you kind of looking forward to 5, 10 years, you know, in the fleet industry, just, you know, life in general, I guess.

Yeah. Um, making some really mean asados. Okay.

First and foremost, most important things, priorities, you know, that's right.

Um, But no, um, fleets have— fleet management has had very similar issues over the last 15, 20 years. Um, what's changing now is the issues are still the same, but the pro— the, the solutions to those problems are starting to show up. And the question is, is how will your fleet incorporate those things? Um, technician shortage, there's so much out there that can help automate processes that if you take that and then you automate a PM to some regard where you can shave 10 minutes off of it and then you do that 20 times a week and then you do it 150 times a month and then you do it 1,000 times a year, well, maybe that technician or 3 that you were missing in your organization, maybe it's cut down to 1.5 because the efficiency of those PMs or whatever job you're doing increases so much that you don't need those other people. So I think there's solutions out there, but again, it's bringing in the technology and changing your process to adapt to these technologies. And I think most importantly is when you bring in the process, the— when you bring in the process to do this, you have to be able to leverage everything, right? Not just use 10% of RTA, for example. Yeah, use 20% and then 50 and then 80 and try to maximize everything. That's super important. I see that a lot where people leave so much on the table where they're just not utilizing whatever program or whatever they have.

We see that a lot. Yeah, not just ours, you know, we go out on consulting engagements, we see that a ton because almost always it's not, it's not the FMIS's problem, right? Yeah. Um, it will tell people that all the time is, oh, we really I gotta switch. Well, do you? Because I don't know that this is going to fix it, right? It really might be your processes or your own adoption. You know, you've not gotten training or something.

Yeah.

Um, but I think the idea of, you know, of finding efficiencies, automating, you know, and things like that is spot on. And that's honestly, it's advice that, you know, that was what Grandpa was doing back in the '70s, right? They literally almost doubled the size of their fleet and kept the labor force the same, right? And, you know, we talk a lot about technician shortages. Part of the solution to technician shortage is reduce your dependency on technicians, right? Is, is to be able to grow your fleet or have more vehicles or, and do it with less, right? And we hear that mandate all the time, but there are ways to do it. It might just be uncomfortable because oftentimes it changes, it's changing your process and that's hard.

Yep.

So, um, I'm going to go back to one piece that you said at the very beginning of the conversation, because I think this is another great piece of advice for just anybody coming into fleet. Um, and it's something you did, you reached out to Tom Johnson at the very beginning and you asked him a question. You want to repeat that question?

Yeah. I said, who do I, uh, I think the question was, who do you, who do you know that I need to know in the fleet industry?

One of the things that I often tell people, and I don't know that I've said it on the show a ton. I've definitely said it a lot though, is you get to a certain stage and it's not how, it's not what, right? It's who, not how. And if you can remember that, right, it's who, not how. What ends up happening is we do, we get to this limit where we are no longer capable of growing. And it is, it's, it's all about who you know in the industry.

Yep.

And I love that, you know, you mentioned that because yeah, maybe you were only a fleet manager for 7 years, but you know a ton of people in this industry and they all know you, right? Because of who you knew, you're able to go and you made some changes, you're able to adjust, you applied for 100 Best Fleets. I think the key is be willing to put yourself out there and ask that question, make the introductions. Don't be afraid to get involved in different associations, right? I heard you were president of the— was it a NFA chapter or was it just a— I think it was a local fleet management chapter.

It was a local chapter of a NFA.

Okay. Yeah. And that's the, you know, look for those opportunities to volunteer and get to know your peers, get to know your colleagues, because that network is ultimately what's going to be your a great resource for you, right? As you ask questions and you have challenges, um, again, it's not— it's who, not how, right? So I love that that was one of the first things you did was, okay, Tom, you seem like you're well connected to this industry. You know everybody I don't know, but who should I know that you know, right? And get— ask for the introduction. Don't be afraid.

And one thing I'm, you know, as I'm meeting RTA customers is I'm— I tell them the same thing. I was like, look, you know, I want to help you as much as I can with the software, but I have a background and I know people. So if there's any question regarding Fleet or related to Fleet that I can help with, don't be afraid to ask because if I don't know the answer and I've told him this, if I don't know the answer, I know somebody or at least a few people that do know the answer.

Yep.

And it's, you know, whether it's in tech startup, whether it's, you know, some technology you're bringing in, whether it's a fleet management question. We'll get the answer.

Yeah, that's awesome. Well, uh, Facundo, thank you very much for coming on the show today. Uh, for everybody else, if you have questions for Facundo or questions for the podcast in general, we'd love to hear them. Uh, you can send them over to podcast@rtafleet.com. And until next time.