A COMMERCIAL vehicle recovery company claims the real cost of an incident involving a commercial vehicle could be as much as 10 times the standard industry estimate.

Delta Commercial Vehicle Services (DCVS) says it has identified 14 hidden costs, which it claims could, on average, add £10,000 to the total bill following an incident.

The company said: 'These associated costs include finding a replacement vehicle and driver, mitigating third party costs such as credit hire and repairs and de-fleet penalties.'

It argues that this compares sharply to the traditional approach of accident management which, it says, 'concentrates only on the primary costs, on average £1,000, for repairs, recovery and storage'.

'In doing so,' DCVS said, 'the saving achieved is typically 10% or £100, whereas a focus on minimising vehicle downtime and mitigating losses can achieve a realistic saving of up to 25%. For an overall bill of £10,000 this would mean a saving of £2,500.'

Chief operating officer Ian McKenzie said: 'The true cost comes from a failure to recognise and control the factors that influence off-road time, not simply the repair bill. Tackle these effectively and the savings can be much greater.'