Although a fleet may do everything it can to avoid crashes, a firm still needs to have special procedures in place for managing accidents.
Trevor Cutts, managing director at Elite Incident Management said: ‘We have had discussions with a number of motorcycle manufacturers and there is a lot of interest from companies in offering bikes to employees as an alternative to the company car.
‘Accident management is a growth area among company car fleets as they look to improve their risk management performance and increase operating efficiencies.
‘But businesses offering motorbikes to their employees as a benefit-in-kind need to be certain that a similar infrastructure for company car provision and back-up service also exists for bikes. This is one of the reasons we opened up our motorcycle repair network to the corporate sector.’
Elite Incident Management claims that damaged motorcycles are often written-off when, in many cases, they could be repaired. Invariably the major cost of a motorcycle repair is damage to the frame.
Cutts said: ‘The easy repair option is to replace it, which is also likely to be the most expensive solution.
‘Elite centres can repair most types of damage, saving time and money for fleets and insurers.’
Cutts outlined the cost differences between repairing and replacing parts. The bill for damage to a Suzuki GS500 can be almost halved by frame repair rather than replacement after an accident (see table).
Individual fleet managers need to weigh up the pros and cons of motorcycles compared to other forms of transport.
Nick Brown, director of research at the Motorcycle Industry Association said: ‘We don’t all need to take colleagues or equipment with us on business. Motorcycles make extremely flexible and surprisingly practical transport They have a part to play alongside the car and train.’
Repair cost – Suzuki GS500
| Replace frame | Repair frame | |||
| Labour | £219.00 | £219.00 | ||
| Frame/jig repair cost | £532.77 | £100.00 | ||
| Paint | £000.00 | £81.24 | ||
| VAT | £131.56 | £70.04 | ||
| Total | £883.33 | £470.28 | ||
Login to comment
Comments
No comments have been made yet.