New tool ‘reveals hidden costs’ for HGV operators

A new return on investment (ROI) calculator suggests that HGV operators could be saddled with costs totalling thousands of pounds without realising it.

In developing the ROI calculator, R2C analysed the time it takes to do the most basic tasks, from filling out a vehicle check to making a call to chase an invoice, and assigned values based on typical hourly rates for the employees tasked with them. 

For example, R2C worked out that a fleet with 100 vehicles, working a five-day week and conducting one driver check per vehicle a day could incur more than £3,000 a week in costs to complete this task.

Using this data, R2C says 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.

It allows users to input their exact set up (number of bays, vehicles, employees, etc) in order to generate the potential savings to be made by switching to a digital management system.

For example, R2C suggests that a 100-vehicle fleet being managed by five technicians could be making savings of almost £1,800 per week (potentially almost £95,000 per year) through automation. 

R2C says that 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 savings to be made for smaller fleets too, according to R2C. A 15-vehicle fleet with one technician could, it says, 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.”

He 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.”