A tool designed to prevent the automatic renewal of rolling fleet supplier contracts is being introduced by software provider FleetCheck.
The Contract Manager function will be added to the company’s core fleet management system during the first quarter of 2018, at no additional cost to users.
FleetCheck managing director Peter Golding said that rolling contracts were often poorly monitored by fleets, especially at the smaller end of the sector, and could lead to increased costs and reduced efficiencies.
He said: “A lot of fleets sign rolling contracts for everything from telematics to breakdown recovery. They work on the basis that, unless the customer contacts the supplier within the last few months of the contract to cancel they just keep renewing, usually for a further 12 months.
“There is a tendency to just let them continue but this has definite disadvantages. Firstly, the contract often changes when it renews, including amendments such as price increases, and secondly, there may simply be better deals available elsewhere in the market.”
Contract Manager allows users of FleetCheck’s software to log a contract and its renewal date. This creates an alert in the software so that the deal can be properly checked and a proactive decision made about whether to continue with the supplier.
Golding said: “This is a simple idea but one that will provide an essential prompt for fleets so that they can properly assess whether they are happy with their current supplier or otherwise. It helps to put some of basic tenets of purchasing best practice in place.
“We will be introducing this new feature early in 2018 and expect it to be effective in helping our fleet customers, especially SMEs, to more effectively manage the fleet contracts that they sign.”
