Sewells: Fleets are worth £19.5 billion to UK economy every year

Car and van fleets add £19.5 billion to the UK economy each year, according to market research firm Sewells, which released the figure during an industry briefing at a recent Fleet200 quarterly meeting.

The figure is based on an average annual running cost of between £4500 and £6500 per vehicle and a fleet car parc, which is said to be roughly 3 million units in total. Therefore the parc is said to add £19.5 billion annually. Based on commonly held long term averages that suggest cars require one new tyre per car per year, this could also suggest that the fleet parc consumes 3 million tyres a year or a bit under 10 per cent of total annual tyre demand.

Sewells also reported that company car drivers are putting pressure on fleet managers for more premium products such as BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz. This is expected to push company car fleet costs further still.

“Any fleet manager will know how costs can quickly grow when looking after a fleet of vehicles. Looking at fleet sales as a whole, you start to see just how crucial it is to the automotive industry and the UK economy,” said Fleet News quoted Simon Staplehurst, commercial manager at Sewells Research and Insight as saying. Staplehurst added:

“Even with a conservative average spend of £5,000 per fleet vehicle, the value is £15bn before any additional services such as accident management, staffing and insurance are considered. It has long been accepted that fleet sales are a key piece of the UK economy, but the true scale has never been fully explored – until now. This demonstrates the significance of fleet managers across the UK.”