Benchmarking aids fleet risk strategy

According to LeasePlan UK, there are an estimated 3 million company cars on the roads and roughly 1 in 3 will be involved in an accident each year. Over 17 per cent of these incidents will take place on a Tuesday, with damages from fault and non-fault incidents costing companies upwards of £6.4 million over the past three years, just for the one day.

For businesses who operate company vehicles dealing with incidents is an unfortunate part of managing a fleet. As well as just the safety implications of having drivers involved in incidents, companies can also face unexpected costs due to, repairs, vehicle downtime and ultimately lost productivity.

New data from LeasePlan UK, collected over the past three years, shows the average daily cost of repairs to businesses for fault and non-fault incidents is £5.3 million, with an average vehicle off road time of 9.6 days. Further insight shows the industry sector with the highest incident rate is the Transportation sector with over 33 per cent.

To help reduce downtime, save time and money, while also keeping vehicles and drivers in good conditions it is important to understand how to manage risks and accidents. Keeping a healthy and balanced fleet is all about understanding how the fleet operates, measuring its current performance and identifying how to overcome any shortfalls.

A fleet risk strategy is important to ingrain into a company’s everyday operations. Daily vehicle checks are one of the simplest and easy ways to reduce downtime, ensuring the health of the car – looking at everything from brakes to windscreen wipers – this helps to keep track of any potential problems and catch any faults early enough to effectively plan maintenance and repairs when is best suited to them.

Part of the overall risk management strategy should not just include vehicles owned or leased by a company that need to be taken into a risk management strategy. Grey fleet vehicles – owned by employees but driven for work purposes (excluding commuting) should also have regular check-ups.

This regularity not only helps to reduce incidents but can also help reduce end of contract damage costs, so businesses aren’t left with a an over inflated and unplanned cost at the end of the vehicles contract life.

Helping fleet managers to understand how their fleets compare to others, LeasePlan UK are launching their new benchmarking tool. The tool analyses three key areas of fleet management; accident management, end of contract damage and mechanical vehicle off road time. The results will help businesses put together a robust plan to help keep your fleet healthy and achieve your overall objectives for their fleet.

Stuart Houlston, commercial director at LeasePlan UK, said: “LeasePlan’s launch of the benchmarking tool is the first step in demonstrating we are on the front foot of modern fleet management. Inviting customers to challenge themselves and us to be the best we can be in the fleet industry through benchmarking.  It’s a tool to get people thinking about what they might want to improve on next.  Providing insights to our clients to drive their decisions is what we’re all about.”