Wholelife costs involved in running a fleet are so much more complex than just the vehicle’s rental price and fuel costs.

Many fleets, however, still fail to look at outside costs, such as maintenance, servicing or even accident management.

No fleet manager wants to have to think about dealing with the accident (and its associated costs) of one of their drivers, but unfortunately there is always a possibility this could happen, and the larger the fleet, the greater the chances.

One of the most important factors to take into consideration when planning a fleet strategy is that self-insured fleets have to pay all the costs associated with their driver having or causing an accident.

With this in mind, fleet managers should look at adding some form of insurance costs into their wholelife cost calculations.

Irrespective of which type of vehicle a company next decides to introduce into its fleet, forward planning will stand a fleet manager in good stead should this unpleasant event take place.

Building accident management into total cost of ownership is one way of helping to deal with such an event in a much smoother and simpler manner.

An accident can cause a fleet operator a lot of unwanted stress and hassle in trying to sort it out, as there is a host of things to consider, including getting the vehicle repaired or replaced, sorting out a hire vehicle for the transition time, as well as the possibility of dealing with an injured employee – an accident management company takes this burden off the fleet operator.

Author: Penny Stoolman, managing director Total Accident Management