SMEs deal with vehicles being out of action for 14 working days a year due to preventable breakdowns which costs them £3472 each year, RAC research has claimed.
Faults causing breakdowns include flat tyres (36%), faulty batteries (25%), electrical issues (23%) and low oil levels.
The RAC added that these faults have an impact on time management for managers, with 42% of SMEs saying they spend 75 hours a year dealing with out-of-action vehicles.
“This is a significant sum of money for SMEs to be losing, when a lot of these faults can be detected and prevented before they lead to vehicles breaking down,” said Nick Walker, managing director of RAC Telematics. “Employees are becoming busier and busier in their working lives and therefore it’s difficult sometimes to stay on top of company car maintenance, especially if the vehicle is shared by several employees in a car pool.”
“There is a tendency for people to assume somebody else will deal with issues if it’s not their own car. In that case technology such as telematics can help managers to predict, and therefore prevent possible issues with vehicles,” he added.
