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When asked to name the element of fleet costs that is easiest to control, Kwik-Fit's Martin Towers said: "It's got to be SMR".
He continued: "Leasing companies are now placing work in different areas. To get maintenance done the cheapest way, you will need to be taking a vehicle more often to a service agent. There is that kind of balancing act a fleet has to go through.
"I still think there are different factors to what the driver needs, what the fleet needs and what the leasing firm needs. From a driver perspective, he's paying the same [lease] rate regardless of whether it's an independent or a franchised dealership that's doing the work."
Hyundai fleet boss Martin Wilson said the firm was working towards longer service intervals for this reason: "With SMR, we're looking at going down to 20,000 miles and two years."
Lex Autolease's Chris Chandler said his firm has, over time, developed a large list detailing which vehicles are the most likely to suffer from wear and so cost the operator more in the long run.
"Risks are down to things like predictability of maintenance. We've built up a massive database, which shows which cars chew through brake pads, tyres etc. We tie up a vehicle's price and running costs in the rental based on the information we have. However, when you start getting some quite niche vehicles on board then that gets harder."
KeeResources' Mark Jowsey made the point that larger fleets are more at the mercy of SMR and the costs attached to it: "There is inevitably a task with fleet size. Once you get to a certain size you are more sensitive to the costs attached."
Chandler added that an updated policy is essential to keep SMR and overall costs down. "It's pretty much about ensuring you use that data to build the right kind of allocation policy," he said. "A lot of the time a fleet is a subservient part of a business and a lot of the time a company will grow and the fleet policy gets left behind. More of a minority are the actual fleet operators who will then. include all the costs."
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