Fleets scrabble to keep cars on road as repair wait times mount
Average lead time for booking a garage slot has risen by 57% since before the pandemic
Workshop wait times have increased by 57% since before the pandemic, according to fleet specialist Epyx.
The company said average lead times for service, maintenance and repair (SMR) work rose from 8.11 days in January 2020 to 12.76 days in September 2023.
The data was drawn from the firm’s 1Link Service Network platform, which processes garage bookings for more than four million fleet vehicles.
It named parts and staff shortages as some of the reasons for the logjam and said the average had exceeded 13 days during the past few months.
“Garages have found themselves under pressure since the pandemic when it comes to everything from getting the supplies they need, such as parts and consumables, to recruiting the people required to run their businesses,” said chief commercial officer Tim Meadows.
“This is having a direct impact on lead times, and fleets are undoubtedly having to wait much longer to access the services they need, which means both more planning ahead for routine maintenance and vehicles spending more time off-road when they do break down.
“Although the situation is no longer getting noticeably worse, as happened in the immediate wake of the pandemic, there are no real signs of any improvement other than relatively small month-to-month fluctuations. Our best estimate is that this situation will persist for some time.”
Epyx’s account chimes with figures from the Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI), which said there were around 3500 ADAS-qualified technicians in the UK and claimed another 18,000 were needed to meet current demand for repairs involving advanced driver assistance systems.
The organisation has also been vocal about the widespread shortage of qualified EV technicians.
“Adapting a workforce to meet the rapidly evolving needs of an increasingly advanced car parc is no mean feat, and certainly there has been plenty of focus on getting ready for EV,” said IMI CEO Steve Nash.
“However, we fear this could actually mean the sector has taken its eye off the ball in relation to upskilling for ADAS. This technology is already present in vehicles on UK roads, but with only 3500 technicians ADAS-qualified, there’s a real risk that repairs and recalibration [are] taking place without the proper skills.”
Epyx launched its Driver Booking Module in late 2021 in an attempt to address such issues. This communicates with the calendar in a garage’s dealer management software and shows fleet drivers with access to the 1Link platform when the garage has slots available, allowing them to pick a convenient day and time. It can steer drivers towards specialist garages that are either better prepared to handle the vehicle or to franchised or independent dealers, according to the fleet’s requirements.
“The driver will put their registration number in and, behind the scenes, the rules will be saying, ‘right, we know that’s whatever it is and that the policy for this particular leasing company is [that] because [the vehicle] is less than three years old and it’s got less than 60,000 miles on it, it needs to go to a franchise garage,” said Meadows.
The module can also account for geographical availability. If, for example, the driver’s local Ford dealer is fully booked, it can direct them to a nearby independent garage with more availability to tackle the job faster.