Fleets given greater control over where cars and vans are serviced

Fleets are being given greater control over where their cars and vans are sent for service, maintenance and repair (SMR) with new technology being introduced by Epyx this month.

The rules engine is an addition to the company’s Driver Booking Module which can be used to steer company vehicles towards SMR providers that are most suited to their needs in terms of expertise, convenience and costs.

Ian Dubberley, senior product manager, explained: “We introduced the Driver Booking Module last year to enable drivers to make direct bookings with garages and fast-fits through our 1link Service Network SMR platform, used by fleets totalling more than four million vehicles.

“It’s proven very successful and is now in use on a white label basis by several major vehicle leasing companies.

“It was always our intention that the product would be further enhanced over time and the addition of the rules engine is the first step in that process.

“It allows the fleet manager to define more closely where drivers can take vehicles for SMR.”

For example, vans and older cars might be guided towards independent garages that offer good value and appropriate levels of expertise while those of newer, prestige car brands would only be shown franchise dealers to meet service history expectations.

“There are other possibilities,” continued Dubberley. “If you have technically complex commercial vehicles, these can be steered towards suitable SMR providers.

“It’s all about fleet operators being able to ensure that vehicles are maintained in a manner that maximises their priorities.”

He added that Epyx was already working on new features to further enhance the Driver Booking Module aimed at delivering new benefits for both drivers, vehicle leasing companies and other fleet operators.

He explained: “The next step is likely to be real time diary access. At present, the module presents drivers with a choice of three dates for their SMR but we aim to provide direct access to garage diaries in order to make a single booking in real time. This will be a significant step forward.

“We’re also working on using the module to offer SMR to drivers of non-maintained leased vehicles using menu pricing. This is something that we know leasing companies very much want to be able to offer to their customers and the technology is certainly available.

“We’re even looking at using the possibility of using connected vehicle data in the future. When the vehicle’s systems detect a fault, the Driver Booking Module will notify the driver and automatically make a booking to rectify the problem. This might sound a little science fiction but it is certainly within our product plan.”