Research by Lex Autolease on 21,000 company vehicles has shown that maintenance and repair bills are hitting UK firms hard due to driver negligence.

Company car misfuelling, windscreen damage, illegal tyres and vehicle downtime are the major cost burdens revealed by the study, which highlights the need for firms need to work harder to tackle unnecessary costs hitting the bottom line.

Lex Autolease's research shows that it costs, on average, £435 to replace a windscreen against £341 to correct a misfuelling error. In contrast, drivers spotting a window chip or crack early on could save their firm money with the average repair costing only £68.

Tyres too, are a major business headache with almost one in three (29%) vehicles running on illegal tyres that needed to be replaced immediately. This, combined with other general repair and maintenance jobs, means that the average company car is off the road for almost seven days during its rental period.