Providing a service to 50 customers who collectively run over 1.3 million vehicles, SMR (Service, Maintenance and Repair) facilitator Fleet Assist is the winner of this year’s coveted Innovation Award.
Fleet Assist has the largest managed after-market repair network in the UK, consisting of over 5200 garages and 500 mobile service units. It negotiates market leading labour rates and parts discounts, keeping costs down for its clients whilst maintaining a top level of service availability.
LCV operators and their specific requirements are often overlooked in a fleet industry dominated by cars, leading to frustration and excessive downtime whilst a suitable maintenance location is identified. Height, weight and ramp restrictions are not always evident and on occasion, a vehicle previously booked in may be turned away. Fleet Assist has identified a 900 strong network of Premier Van Centres, these being capable of servicing and maintaining vehicles with a GVM of up to 4,250kg, and without the height restrictions that many garages have.
The rapid growth of the electric van parc in very recent years has seen many garages fall short in the training, expertise and equipment required to maintain these vehicles. Fleet Assist has seen a number of cases where electric vehicles have gone to dealers that were ill equipped and unable to provide a service. This is especially the case with the heavier, 4,250kg electric vans which are becoming more commonplace. Garages have been awarded EV Premier Van centre status, clearly identified as being capable of working on this latest generation of heavier electric van. Vincent St Claire, Fleet Assist’s MD, said: “This is great news for operators as electric van payloads have increased, but for garages, it means having the relevant equipment in their workshops to accommodate the heavier vehicles. Many dealers will not be equipped to handle these vans which is where our EV Premier Van Centre network comes into its own. It avoids misdirection of SMR work to garages unprepared for heavyweight LCVs,” he added.
Monitoring service levels and the level of customer satisfaction offered are vital to ensure that the network of garages used by Fleet Assist provide the standard required. To this end, the company has launched a ‘Balanced Scorecard’ programme. All garages in the network are measured using a number of criteria, including customer feedback, booking acceptance rates, repair delays and cancellation rates. Highlighting the top performers as well as those who are lower down the table, the 10 indicators give customers a credible guide as to the overall performances of these suppliers, and provide reassurance that Fleet Assist works with those that need to improve their score, helping to provide them with the best possible service.
Providing the customer with visual evidence of Fleet Assists commitment to quality of service, garages which have been satisfactorily audited by the company in relation to its technician capabilities, facilities and EV competence, etc. can display a dated certificate stating that the facility has ‘met all the necessary requirements to be part of the Fleet Assist SMR national garage network’. Garages take pride in achieving the standard and displaying the certificate, and customers can be assured that, due to the annual process, the monitoring of standards is an ongoing process.
Fleet Assist have many testimonials from satisfied customers, including from Sam Meacock at Leasys UK. “Fleet Assist remains the benchmark in our view in terms of garage network management. Both the ‘Premier van network’ and ‘Balanced scorecard’ are radical advances which eases our SMR workload and allows us to see how Fleet Assist garage network used by our customers, either fleet managers or drivers, is performing and more importantly continually improving.”
Highly Commended: ONO
Highly commended in the Innovation Award category is ONO. The company, launched in April 2024 aims to provide van drivers with an accident management solution. The mobile app and its user friendly interface allows for image capture and recording of the precise location of the accident. This information integrates into a fleet managers dashboard, allowing for incidents to be centralised and providing an efficient claims process. Advantages cited by ONO include time saving, cost reductions (in some cases up to 20% saved in incident expenses) and enhanced accuracy. Fleet operators benefit from being able to instantly assess a situation, requesting assistance from other services when necessary.
Customer profiles that have taken advantage of the software include taxi companies, food delivery services and road safety organisations, many citing the time saving advantages in particular due to the ease of inputting accurate and relevant information by the driver.
