Prestige Fleet Servicing has added a new VehicleTrak function to its mainstream Unity operating platform to provide fleet managers with greater transparency over the progress of work in the SMR pipeline.

Using VehicleTrak, Prestige fleet clients can now view in real time the progress of SMR (service, maintenance and repair) work on all their vehicles on local bespoke dashboards, allowing them to assess the rate of progress of jobs in the system.

As the new system provides a clearer picture of the whereabouts of their vehicles in the system, how long they will be off the road and how soon before they will be operable again, vehicle downtime management is improved considerably, says Prestige.

Fleet managers can then plan contingencies, such as replacement vehicles or short term rentals, if their vehicles are going to be off-road for longer than first anticipated to ensure drivers are not left stranded or work commitments unfulfilled.

This latest enhancement builds on the functionality of the Unity platform which brings a number of benefits for service centres as well as fleet users.

One of the most recent developments was the integration of Unity with an online parts system with access to more than 130,000 vehicle parts prices and availability. This allows service centre managers to identify and order the required parts more quickly and have them delivered more time-efficiently, thus reducing vehicle downtime even further. Unity also provides details of expected parts delivery times.

The Unity platform is at the hub of the Prestige SMR network, and all service centres within the network of around 340 outlets can access it as part of their standard agreement.

Unity provides them with an easy to use, end-to-end system for diary management, SMR authorisations, work-in-progress management and management information reporting.

It also delivers central electronic invoicing via its self-billing function, which eliminates input administration time for service centres and allows them to focus on their core activities.

In addition, the system provides service centre managers with diary capacity management in real-time to ensure they have sufficient resources to meet work commitments, along with speedier authorisations plus invoice retrieval and real-time messaging.

For fleet clients, an enhanced suite of management information reports are now available to provide detailed analysis of SMR work times and costs.

Fleet clients can now see overall average invoice values, the average cost of invoices by manufacturer, model and derivative, tyre condition and tyre costs, vehicle condition reports and online booking trends – to name but a few.

Recent client successes include a major vehicle auction house, a leading breakdown and recovery operator, a UK vehicle warranty provider and several key corporate fleets. And the company’s most recent three-year, multi-thousand vehicle contract has taken the number of vehicles within Prestige’s client portfolio past the one million vehicle milestone for the first time.

Prestige operations director Nick Hutton said: “VehicleTrak will provide fleet managers with greater transparency over their vehicles’ whereabouts in the pipeline and allow them to plan vehicle downtime more effectively. This, along with our other enhancements to the Unity platform, has helped deliver an assortment of real benefits to both fleet and service centre managers.

“We are delivering on our commitment to provide service centres with the capability to speed up the SMR process from authorisation to completion, while at the same time providing our fleet customers with greater transparency and more detailed analysis of all work our network carries out on their behalf."