There are various ways a company can reduce the maintenance costs of it's fleet. A maintenance contract is an option that is offered as part of contract hire and personal contract hire. However it is worth considering carefully, if indeed it is worthwhile taking up. Every case is different but often the additional cost is not justified. As to whether it is worth considering will partially depend on the mileage that the vehicle is likely to do.



Assuming that you do not have a maintenance contract the following suggestions could be worth considering; when the vehicles go into the dealership for servicing, you could ask them to carry out the basic service and list any other item that they feel needs attention, providing of course there is not a safety issue involved. This will help avoid having tyres changed because there is only 2000 miles ("approximately") of wear left. Well 2000 miles is 2000 miles and on occasions those 2000 miles of wear, when checked independently have proved to be 5000 miles. If you multiply that across your fleet or indeed if you have just one vehicle, it's a lot of money.

The dealership may argue that if the tyres are not changed when the vehicle is in for a service, it may then be overlooked. With serving intervals now often 18,000 miles apart and more, if that were the case, if a car only has 16,000 miles of wear left presumably you would also have to change them on the basis that they wouldn't last until the next service, and may get overlooked.

When it comes time to change tyres or indeed brake pads there is no reason to have the dealership carry out the work, although it is important to follow the manufacturers recommendations. So when buying tyres avoid tyres that are "exactly the same" as those recommended by the manufacturer.

The fact is that much of the work carried out by the main dealership is often more expensive than it would cost elsewhere. There are many organisations that can supply and fit the manufacturers recommended tyres, significantly cheaper. Many of them will probably be local to you and will allow a company to open an account with them.

Having a car serviced at a main agent is generally not in its self terribly expensive; it is everything else that is carried out at the time of the service, which usually proves to be costly and is of course the most profitable part of servicing for the franchised dealer. In a study carried out by the Office Of Fair Trading they estimated that 1.4 Billion is spent every year on servicing cars up to three years old and that after sales costs represents approximately 40% of the whole life cost of a car.

In any event leaving your vehicle with the dealership and telling them to carry out whatever the vehicle requires, is probably not advisable if you want to avoid nasty shocks. It often comes down to a matter of opinion as to what a vehicle requires; there have been cases of the owner, on collection of the car, being told that the air conditioning gas had been found to be low, so they re- gassed the system, at a cost of 180 British Pounds, when the owner was quite happy with the way it was working previously. If indeed the system does require re-gassing it will usually prove a lot less expensive to call in a private company.

In summary if your vehicle is on contract hire or personal contract hire certainly consider the inclusive of maintenance option, it can have its advantages; some will for example cover damaged tyres and some have the option of an immediate relief vehicle in the event of a breakdown. However do look at the servicing intervals and the mileage the vehicle is estimated to do over the term, this can be an important consideration when deciding if it is worthwhile. If you do not have a maintenance option consider the possibility of having all the additional work carried out where it will be less expensive to do so.