Articles by Fleet News - Page 932

Traditional fleet service, maintenance and repair (SMR) costs can be forecasted down to the final penny at the benchmark three years/60,000 miles - but a raft of ‘grey areas’ fuelled by numerous factors means contract hire and leasing companies continue to build up contingency funds to meet the cost of the unforeseen.

This year is set to deliver the best value returns seen for light commercial vehicles for many years, although there are some claims that prices may have hit their glass ceiling.

Buyers are continuing to pay close to top dollar for de-fleeted top quality company cars, but experts are warning of a tightening market with investment in pre-sale repairs paying dividends.

Longer service intervals and a trend for motor manufacturers to move the requirement for ‘expensive’ parts replacement - such as cambelts - beyond 60,000 miles has contributed to a decade long changes in the breakdown of service maintenance and repair (SMR) costs.

Common business sense means that contract hire and leasing companies do not want to make a loss on service, maintenance and repair (SMR) costs so it is vital that they undertake a robust risk assessment and measure and manage the lifecycle of individual vehicle components.

In most contract hire companies someone is responsible for obtaining new vehicle data, someone else negotiates discounts with dealers and someone else obtains VRB details and negotiates tactical deals with manufacturers.

Leasing companies place more than a quarter of their SMR business with independent companies rather than franchised dealers, new research has shown.

The long-awaited revised Exposure Draft (ED) on lease accounting was published by the IASB on 16 May 2013 and addresses a number of the problems identified by respondents following the initial Exposure Draft published in 2010.

Business confidence is rising among leasing companies as profitability improves and growth expectations increase in response to stronger fleet customer demand.

Leasing companies have praised manufacturers for their efforts to improve relationships with the industry in the past year – and they have set out four priority areas to improve levels of support still further in future.