Service, maintenance and repair are being taken back in-house by some fleets, according to FleetCheck research, with the move to be prompted by electrification and the general ageing of the fleet vehicle parc.
Peter Golding, managing director at FleetCheck, said: “There’s a growing perception among fleets that what they are being charged for SMR by third parties, especially leasing company maintenance packages, is overinflated and outweighs any expertise that third parties bring when it comes to SMR buying.
To an extent, it’s easy to see why this is happening. Some SMR providers who have limited experience of maintaining electric vehicles, and older cars and vans, have perhaps been pricing well on the side of caution, and some fleets have noticed where this is the case.
As a result, we have seen a growing interest to bring SMR back in-house and fleets are relearning skills in this area that have been outsourced to third parties for decades, such as identifying the best suppliers and interrogating workshop bills.”
Solutions being adopted by fleets managing their own SMR, according to Golding, depends on factors such as the vehicles they are operating, their geographical footprint, and the complexity of their maintenance needs.
“If you operate a relatively straightforward fleet on a more local basis, then it can simply be an issue of creating relationships with a handful of nearby workshops, especially if you use fleet maintenance software to provide a managerial infrastructure,” he continued.
“Certainly, some of the fleets involved are making considerable savings compared to the third-party costs they were paying previously.”