Major UK fleet operators are increasingly turning to technology to drive fresh efficiencies across their businesses.

Technology solutions firm Epyx said everything from underperforming residuals values (RVs) for electric cars through to the escalating cost of oil is impacting on fleet budgets – and as a result, businesses are seeking new ways of doing more with less.

Marc Lees, vice president at the company, stated: “We work with most of the country’s biggest fleets across leasing, corporate and the public sector, and it is clear many feel under considerable financial pressure. Especially, some have been battered by ongoing poor electric RVs, high fuel prices, and rising service, maintenance and repair (SMR) costs – and are looking for ways of accessing savings.

“The outcome is probably the strongest propensity to adopt new technology in the more than two decades Epyx has existed. There is a genuine thirst for new products and ideas that can ease cost pressures through this wave of belt tightening.”

Enhanced data utilisation is a central focus, Lees outlined, thanks to rapid developments in artificial intelligence (AI) that enable fleets to interrogate information much more quickly and effectively, unlocking valuable new insights.

“For years, fleets have had access to huge and growing amounts of data but there was a shortage of tools to interrogate it effectively. AI has changed that, creating the potential to ‘play’ with numbers quickly and easily in a way that was previously unavailable. Imaginative approaches are revealing many kinds of different insights that have commercial value.”

Lees added that Epyx had seen an increase in demand for its data and reporting as a result of this trend.

“We almost certainly have more UK fleet SMR data than anyone else and over the last couple of years, there has been a definite increase in fleets that want to access and leverage our information to drive new efficiencies.”

The other key area of growth had been in new products that enabled substantial process improvements, Lees added.

“We introduced AVA – for Automatic Vehicle Authorisation – earlier this year that uses machine learning to automatically authorise a much wider range of SMR jobs than previously possibly. It was adopted by fleets totalling more than one million vehicles inside three months, which is quite dramatic. That figure shows the kind of hunger for genuine innovation that exists.

“We’re currently seeing a similar pattern emerge around direct booking, which allows fleets to access workshop diaries in real time in order to reserve work. Usage is increasing on a daily basis and we expect to have 70% coverage of our workshop network by the end of the year, again because the benefits available have obvious value.”

Lees outlined that financial pressure on major fleets was unlikely to ease in the short term, with key negatives likely to persist at least through the medium term.

“The good news, however, is that through the adoption of new technology and other progressive ideas, it’s clear that fleets are rising to the challenge.”