Got your first fleet contract? 6 things you won’t want to forget.
Congratulations! You’ve won your first fleet contract. As an independent, the likelihood is that you were competing against much larger franchises with more experience. This is great news for your business. Now you need to work hard to prove your worth and maintain your fleet contract as there will be lots of future bidders snapping at your heels.
- Invest
The decision to take on a fleet contract hopefully means that you have already invested, or plan to invest in staff and equipment to meet the needs of the fleet and match as closely as you can the service that would be provided by a franchised dealer.
- Insurance
If you are looking after a whole fleet of vehicles, you are going to need some good insurance, but this will be one of your major expenses. Combined motor trade insurance is a good option and traders-insurance offers quotes from a panel of motor trade insurance specialists to ensure that you get the best price and comprehensive cover for your needs.
- Customer Service
One of the main reasons a fleet manager chooses an independent garage is to take advantage of the personalised, flexible service on offer. Hone those great customer service skills to ensure a good and lasting relationship with the fleet manager. Effective communication is key. Keep your costs fair and reasonable too. Showing honesty and integrity will be a major draw for business.
- Training
Company fleets will more often than not contain high performance and prestige vehicles. Managers will want assurance that you have the expertise to understand, maintain and repair high value vehicles. This may involve additional training for you or members of your team, see it as an investment.
- Accuracy
As part of your fleet contract agreement, you will be required to maintain logs of maintenance work for each truck or car, track the mileage and recommend service work. Place an emphasis on carrying out this paperwork with painstaking accuracy. Service, maintenance and repair (SMR) of fleet vehicles comes at a huge cost to organisations. They expect the details to be correct.
- Security related repair and maintenance (SERMI)
New legislation means that independent garages can now be granted access to all areas of a manufacturer’s technical information. However, authorisation is only given once a garage has received approval. Ensure that you have taken steps to get approval granted to gain access to the hardware and certificates. Don’t forget that re-authorisation is required every 36 months.
With all these bases covered, you should be in a great position to serve your fleet client, and perhaps even attract some more!
