Next cut: Fleet Department

[anonymous]

Thrilled to finally get my generous $500 monthly stipend toward a leased car starting soon. We've only been hearing rumors about this for years. Just another brilliant move in the race to squeeze out a little more profit.

 

[anonymous]

Many pharmaceutical firms have moved from company car fleets to vehicle reimbursement programs.
This transition has led to cost reductions of up to 30% in the first year and has improved employee satisfaction by offering more flexibility but at a cost to sales reps.

 

[anonymous]

Many pharmaceutical firms have moved from company car fleets to vehicle reimbursement programs.
This transition has led to cost reductions of up to 30% in the first year and has improved employee satisfaction by offering more flexibility but at a cost to sales reps.

We benched-marked reimbursement Fleet programs during our Fleet Management Conference, Chicago ‘2025 AAOP every year and the reality is direct reimbursement programs getting corporations out of the car businesssaves the company about 60% (no insurance no liability no maintenance no lease payments and most importantly no fuel)

You gotta be nuts if you’re doing pharmaceutical salesbusiness in North America offering a free car that’s totally unnecessary to transport a salesforce that never sees the customer face-to-face.

Pharma field sales has metastasized into basically a Meals on Wheels structure that can easily be handled by outsourcing third-party food delivery services at a substantially lower cost, and liability exposure.

 

[anonymous]

We benched-marked reimbursement Fleet programs during our Fleet Management Conference, Chicago ‘2025 AAOP every year and the reality is direct reimbursement programs getting corporations out of the car businesssaves the company about 60% (no insurance no liability no maintenance no lease payments and most importantly no fuel)

You gotta be nuts if you’re doing pharmaceutical salesbusiness in North America offering a free car that’s totally unnecessary to transport a salesforce that never sees the customer face-to-face.

Pharma field sales has metastasized into basically a Meals on Wheels structure that can easily be handled by outsourcing third-party food delivery services at a substantially lower cost, and liability exposure.

Now this WOULD be corporate greed. Already making billions in profits! Fyi, there are still other industries that provide sales reps comapny vehicles.

 

[anonymous]

Now this WOULD be corporate greed. Already making billions in profits! Fyi, there are still other industries that provide sales reps comapny vehicles.

Again the pharmaceutical sales individual does not ever see the principal customer which is the physician, you know the one that writes the prescriptions?
As I said pharmaceutical sales has metastasized into a Starbucks, Panera, Chipotle you name it Meals on Wheels clinic-office $200,000/yr food delivery service. Executive management now knows essentially the sales individual works from10 to 2 on a very good day. In vehicle telematics has confirmed documented and benchmarked this activity trend.
The “detail man“ sales model, company car inoffice live appointment driven physician approach is a dinosaur and will finally be extinct at the pharmaceutical outfit I am the Director of Fleet Operations, including vehicle procurement.
Until a receptionist can write prescriptions or if you’re ever allowed to hand deliver physical samples again we see no utilization for the typical traditional pharmaceutical sales vehicle-approach not only me but as bench-marked AAOP as well as the NETS organization.

Time to realize the tide has turned and the tide as we say is going out.

 

[anonymous]

Again the pharmaceutical sales individual does not ever see the principal customer which is the physician, you know the one that writes the prescriptions?
As I said pharmaceutical sales has metastasized into a Starbucks, Panera, Chipotle you name it Meals on Wheels clinic-office $200,000/yr food delivery service. Executive management now knows essentially the sales individual works from10 to 2 on a very good day. In vehicle telematics has confirmed documented and benchmarked this activity trend.
The “detail man“ sales model, company car inoffice live appointment driven physician approach is a dinosaur and will finally be extinct at the pharmaceutical outfit I am the Director of Fleet Operations, including vehicle procurement.
Until a receptionist can write prescriptions or if you’re ever allowed to hand deliver physical samples again we see no utilization for the typical traditional pharmaceutical sales vehicle-approach not only me but as bench-marked AAOP as well as the NETS organization.

Time to realize the tide has turned and the tide as we say is going out.

“Rep does not ever see the principal customers…”?? Do you ever leave the bubble yoh live in?

 

[anonymous]

Again the pharmaceutical sales individual does not ever see the principal customer which is the physician, you know the one that writes the prescriptions?
As I said pharmaceutical sales has metastasized into a Starbucks, Panera, Chipotle you name it Meals on Wheels clinic-office $200,000/yr food delivery service. Executive management now knows essentially the sales individual works from10 to 2 on a very good day. In vehicle telematics has confirmed documented and benchmarked this activity trend.
The “detail man“ sales model, company car inoffice live appointment driven physician approach is a dinosaur and will finally be extinct at the pharmaceutical outfit I am the Director of Fleet Operations, including vehicle procurement.
Until a receptionist can write prescriptions or if you’re ever allowed to hand deliver physical samples again we see no utilization for the typical traditional pharmaceutical sales vehicle-approach not only me but as bench-marked AAOP as well as the NETS organization.

Time to realize the tide has turned and the tide as we say is going out.

Marketing plus poor leadership has ruined this perception with their antiquated reach and frequency metrics. Reps have to play the stupid game that is given to them. Also how can as you say, be “meals on wheels” but never see the principal customer? The food is actually what gets reps the time to actually see the doctors. Maybe if doctors would see reps without having to feed them, during their lunch breaks, reps wouldn’t have to be meals on wheels!

 

[anonymous]

We benched-marked reimbursement Fleet programs during our Fleet Management Conference, Chicago ‘2025 AAOP every year and the reality is direct reimbursement programs getting corporations out of the car businesssaves the company about 60% (no insurance no liability no maintenance no lease payments and most importantly no fuel)

You gotta be nuts if you’re doing pharmaceutical salesbusiness in North America offering a free car that’s totally unnecessary to transport a salesforce that never sees the customer face-to-face.

Pharma field sales has metastasized into basically a Meals on Wheels structure that can easily be handled by outsourcing third-party food delivery services at a substantially lower cost, and liability exposure.

Companies like Genentech, Gilead, and Amgen offer high-end vehicles such as Mercedes, Audi, Cadillacs, and Lexus to their sales representatives. This reflects the quality pharmaceuticals they sell together with top talent they attract and want to retain.
On the other hand GSK lacks quality products and has in general lower quality reps- thus no more fleet car.
Estimates to have a vehicle similar to what we is currently driven at GSK will cost the rep an additional $6,000 +/- yr.

 

[anonymous]

Companies like Genentech, Gilead, and Amgen offer high-end vehicles such as Mercedes, Audi, Cadillacs, and Lexus to their sales representatives. This reflects the quality pharmaceuticals they sell together with top talent they attract and want to retain.
On the other hand GSK lacks quality products and has in general lower quality reps- thus no more fleet car.
Estimates to have a vehicle similar to what we is currently driven at GSK will cost the rep an additional $6,000 +/- yr.

If there is one thing we have more rinky-dink than our drugs, our discovery, or a commercial teams, it's our fleet department. MAGA imbeciles every one of them.

 

[anonymous]

Companies like Genentech, Gilead, and Amgen offer high-end vehicles such as Mercedes, Audi, Cadillacs, and Lexus to their sales representatives. This reflects the quality pharmaceuticals they sell together with top talent they attract and want to retain.
On the other hand GSK lacks quality products and has in general lower quality reps- thus no more fleet car.
Estimates to have a vehicle similar to what we is currently driven at GSK will cost the rep an additional $6,000 +/- yr.

Not sure where you heard that about Gilead. Their fleet is Rogue, Forester, Equinox or you can pay $3800 to upgrade to the Ascent. The Directors drive a Vovlo XC60.

 

[anonymous]

Not sure where you heard that about Gilead. Their fleet is Rogue, Forester, Equinox or you can pay $3800 to upgrade to the Ascent. The Directors drive a Vovlo XC60.

I’m not too concerned about what other companies are doing—what matters to me is the direction we're headed with our vehicles. This definitely feels like another benefit being downsized or taken away. I guess it's just a sign of the times, and it doesn't seem like I have much say in it. I’ll probably end up going with an inexpensive hybrid since my territory covers a lot of ground. I doubt I’ll be seeing the farther-out customers as often. I guess I'm sort of amazed the change didn't happen years ago, I remember our SVP in general pharma, Gerald Mosley 20 years ago- saying at a regional meeting discussions on getting rid of fleet were being discussed back then.

 

[anonymous]

Not sure where you heard that about Gilead. Their fleet is Rogue, Forester, Equinox or you can pay $3800 to upgrade to the Ascent. The Directors drive a Vovlo XC60.

I read that the car of choice is the Ebony edition magic wand XXL cordless?

 

[anonymous]

It has long been rumored that GSK would switch to a monthly stipend for car allowances for representatives as a cost-saving measure. However, no major pharmaceutical company has adopted this approach; it has only been seen in contract, device, and diagnostic roles.
GSK already has a problem attracting decent talent, adopting such a policy would weaken our already weak talent pool.

Pfizer has this or you can have a Nissan Altima…

 

[anonymous]

You must have never had a job that required you to own your car with a car allowance. The average price of a vehicle is now over $48,000. Interest rates are on average 6.5% for new cars. More for used. So you want to take that huge car payment that your allowance won’t come close to covering, pay your own insurance, your own maintenance (tires, brakes, oil changes, etc) and beat your car into the ground so by the time it’s half paid off it has 80,000 miles and will only get more expensive to own? Just so you can own the brand of car you like. lol. Brilliant. Anyone with a brain will take a company car all day. GSK would save an incredible amount of money giving you that allowance.

This post is the most spot on post I’ve probably seen on cafepharma in a very long time. I was in device and can confirm the stipend is awful. We should all be thankful for fleet. Let’s hope they keep the nicer options!