FLEETS can cut incident bills by almost 20% by outsourcing accident management, according to a new report by MarketLine International. A new survey by the company reveals that last year the average fleet incident cost £789, but the average cost per incident for fleets which had outsourced their accident management was £652 - a saving of 17.4%.

In the fast expanding accident management marketplace the report says: 'Fleets which are still running accident management in-house may be missing out on significant cost savings from outsourcing their accident management function.' The report reveals that there are now 742,300 cars on accident management in the UK compared with 294,600 in 1992 - a rise of 152%.

In 1992 just 10.3% of fleet cars were operating under some form of accident and risk management scheme, but last year the figure had increased to 23.8% in a market which had increased in size by more than a third over the same period. The accident management market is dominated by VELO and PHH with the former just taking the number one spot with 110,000 vehicles on accident management.

The report says: 'The growing sophistication of the accident management function and the strong associations that accident management companies have with service providers such as independent garages, insurance companies and breakdown operators, has led to considerable time and cost savings on fleet repairs, fuelling this rapid growth.'