Businesses running fleets of vehicles will all experience the issue of managing accidents and maintenance, looking to reduce accident repair costs, administration and business downtime. This is why specialist fleet insurance brokers, Bluedrop Services, have produced this guide to minimising your fleet vehicle downtime.

Minimising maintenance and repair downtime is a huge growing concern for fleets all looking to maximise productivity. Some businesses suffer significant loss of turnover due to vehicle downtime, as well as being able to meet customer expectations and risking overall business reputation. Businesses need to ensure fleet accident repairs are quicker and more cost efficient, focussing on getting the driver back on the road as quickly as possible.

Recent research by Ford Retail found that UK SMEs are losing up to £30,000 a year from fleet vehicles being off the road. Accidents and breakdowns can cause major disruptions and unfortunately cannot be planned around. Driver’s injuries and collating information for third parties can lead to many hours being directed away from the running of a business. Fleet Managers should therefore have a strict procedure in place for such eventualities, enabling them to deal with the situation efficiently.

The overall cost of downtime should also be monitored over time in order to control this cost and be aware of the overall impact. Surprisingly a large proportion of businesses running fleets do not manage this cost or have an overall picture of the impact to the business. Fleet maintenance software can be implemented to manage this burden and also to plan in and prepare for regular maintenance, such as MOTs, services and safety inspections, which can then be planned around work commitments.