Fleet replacement may offer a better option than maintenance

Fleet replacement or vehicle maintenance?

For many businesses with limited resources, maintenance is about deciding what parts need to be replaced first and hoping for the best result. Is there a better way?

Leasing vehicles will mean that this decision forms part of the lease agreement, which is managed by your fleet management company. The best fleet management companies will align the maintenance and replacement of vehicles with the vehicle’s lifespan to ensure that the fleet is always running optimally.

Deciding on how these processes occur requires a combination of expertise and experience.

Replacing a vehicle

The first step to take when considering the replacement of a vehicle is to ask if it is being used fully and if it has the right specifications for the purpose.

If it isn’t the former, you might want to consider reassigning it to a more appropriate function.

There are different approaches to determining whether a vehicle should be replaced. Many owners replace their vehicles after a predetermined period of time or mileage, but this has the disadvantage of not taking the specific variations of vehicles into consideration.

It’s better to consider the economic life cycle analysis, which includes total ownership and operating costs. But to do this, you will need access to vehicle data which might be difficult to obtain.

The managed maintenance solution

Leasing a fleet means that your fleet management company assumes responsibility for replacing vehicles and will ensure that they are in peak condition.

We offer full-maintenance leasing that simplifies vehicle management by taking care of maintenance at a fixed monthly rate so you don’t have to worry about the long-term problem of owning a vehicle.

The Avis Fleet Maintenance call centre has trained technicians to check vehicle history on the database, ensure that manufacturer’s guidelines are followed and that only the necessary maintenance is carried out.

Avis Full Maintenance Lease will ensure:

• That the work that should be done is under warranty, service or maintenance plans.

• We check all supplier job cards and invoices before making payments.

• We provide monthly consolidated tax invoices for the entire fleet.

• We provide exception reporting.

• We conduct monthly fleet reports to curtail costs.

• We provide monthly management reports of fixed and variable costs.

The full-maintenance lease has a positive effect on cash flow: there is no capital outlay for the period of the lease.

Since cost monitoring is fixed for the duration of the contract, you can factor this into your budget as a predictable expense.

Outsourcing the management of your fleet will also relieve you of administrative burdens, including the payment of licences and traffic fines. Avis Fleet will send you monthly management reports to put you in the fleet management driving seat.

Find out more about Avis Fleet solutions, or contact us directly to find out how to improve your cost and fleet productivity with our Full Maintenance Lease.