ON-GOING expansion at Fleet Assist has seen the number of customers’ company cars and vans now using its nationwide network of service outlets accelerate through one million.
Fleet Assist provides leading contract hire and leasing companies and rental organisations with a network of more than 5,000 franchise and independent service outlets which undertake service, maintenance and repair (SMR) work on vehicles supplied to end-user fleets across the UK.
Continuous expansion has enabled Fleet Assist to build up a wealth of SMR data to the extent that today a diverse range of organisations utilise the company’s consultancy service to obtain in-depth information on fleet car and van in-life expenditure to help establish real world whole life operating cost trends and even more accurate SMR cost figures.
Additionally, Fleet Assist’s continuous growth means that network garages are securing an increasing volume of fleet SMR work that keeps workshops busy.
Atlas is Fleet Assist’s sophisticated online operating platform, accessible in real-time by all customers. Key users are the operational, technical and risk departments within Fleet Assist’s customer base.
Atlas Analytics is Fleet Assist’s big data solution. Launched in November 2017 it brings together the £2 billion worth of individual vehicle SMR transaction from Fleet Assist’s customers to provide them and their end-user fleets with unparalleled business intelligence into vehicle maintenance spend.
Growing by 2,000 invoices per day, Atlas Analytics gives customers the ability to slice the data to suit individual needs showing them:
- Where in the country;
- With which repairers;
- On what types of vehicle and;
- On what types of jobs SMR budgets are being spent.
Daily updates means those in charge of SMR budgets at are no longer waiting for monthly reports; while information collected also allows them to identify and react to spend changes.
Karen Ewer, head of business development at Fleet Assist, said: “Sophisticated IT systems are now available to drill down and analyse all the data we have captured to provide customers with detailed information on every aspect of each vehicle’s SMR profile during its fleet life.
Grosvenor Group, which includes Grosvenor Leasing and Interactive Fleet Management operating a combined fleet of some 14,000 vehicles, has used the Fleet Assist network for almost 14 years.
James Parnell, head of purchasing and maintenance, said: “Our business partnership has worked well for many years. Fleet Assist has the capacity to negotiate SMR rates with individual garages and audit those outlets in terms of the services they provide and their capability and that gives us confidence that we are working with best-in-breed service centres.
“The ability of Grosvenor Group to access Fleet Assist’s SMR data not only in respect of vehicles on our own fleet, but information relating to more than one million company cars and vans is hugely important in terms of trend analysis.
“In turn that influences our vehicle maintenance rates and, if major issues occur, we can join forces with Fleet Assist and its other vehicle leasing and fleet management company customers and approach motor manufacturers for solutions, which may be more difficult as an individual business.”
