Hidden commercial fleet costs totalling thousands of pounds have been revealed by a new ROI (return on investment) calculator launched by R2C.
The calculator analyses the time it takes to do even the most basic workshop tasks, from filling out a vehicle check form to making a call to chase an invoice, and assigns values based on typical hourly rates for the employees tasked with them.
Using this time and cost algorithm, R2C has identified just how much even the simplest of jobs are costing a commercial vehicle operator or workshop.
The ROI calculator reveals that a fleet with 100 vehicles, working five days a week, could incur over £3,000 a week in costs just to complete one driver check per vehicle a day.
Using this data, R2C has also shown that huge savings could be made by simply automating tasks which are currently done manually on paper, such as driver walkaround checks, defect reporting, and invoicing and work authorisation.
The ROI calculator allows users to input their exact set-up – including number of bays, vehicles, employees, etc – to generate the potential savings to be made by switching to a digital management system.
As an example, a 100-vehicle fleet managed by five technicians could make savings of nearly £1,800 per week (potentially almost £95,000 per year) through automation. This includes £955 per week saving on driver checks, £417 per week on defect management, £367 per week on workshop saving and £51 per week on invoicing.
There are also potentially impressive savings to be made for smaller fleets too: a 15-vehicle fleet with one technician could still make weekly savings of £286.50 on driver digital checks, £51 a week on invoicing processes and £14.25 on defect management.
Ash Connell, commercial director at R2C, said: “At a time when businesses are under increasing cost and taxation pressures, this calculator demonstrates how significant savings can be made by simply switching away from dated paper-based systems.
“And because the calculator factors in the cost of buying and running the R2C software, it gives workshop managers a true return on investment figure.”
The ROI calculator is adaptable to every business’ needs, allowing a multitude of variables to be inputted, including fleet size, number of checks per day, the hourly rate paid for drivers and technicians, and even the time taken for a paper job sheet to be handed over and filed away.
Once the report is finished, a summary will be emailed for transport managers to share with others in their company.
Connell added: “Our extensive experience shows that workshops are consistently under-estimating the true labour costs of their operations, so we built this calculator to highlight the time- and cost-saving benefits that are available through using a digital workshop management system.”
