Fleets tie too much cash up in third party accidents

The process of a fleet getting a company car back on the road after a non fault accident is costing tens of thousands of pounds each year according to Helphire plc’s subsidiary Total Accident Management.

This process of managing the often complex process of getting the car repaired and back on the road with all the issues associated with Uninsured Loss Recovery is costing thousands of pounds in lost cash flow.

Total, which manages the repairs and claims management on nearly 100,000 vehicles estimates a 500-strong fleet has more than £65,000 of the company’s money tied up in managing non fault road traffic accidents during a typical policy year.

“Our statistics show that 23% of the incidents we manage are caused by a third party, but many companies still haven’t got a formal process to manage these claims without damaging their cashflow," explained Penny Stoolman, Total’s Sales and Marketing Director.

“Credit Hire and Credit Repair are both ways fleets can tighten up their third party accident management claims processes. Both products are relatively new to the fleet industry, but offer major hire car and repair benefits to easing cash flow in a non fault accident,” she added.

Both products working together ensure any costs associated with the third party claim are managed and funded by Total, thus improving a fleet’s cash flow into the bargain. Total has estimated its Credit Hire product could improve a 500-strong fleet’s cashflow over £13,000 per annum and its Credit Repair service over £45,000 per annum. In addition significant costs and resource associated with Uninsured Loss Recovery can be reduced.

“Fleets of all sizes can benefit from Credit Hire and Credit Repair as the funding and hassles are taken away from dealing with non fault accidents. The Helphire Group has been offering this service since 1992 and many thousands of company car drivers and fleets have benefited from this approach,” said Stoolman.

Total is currently working on a calculator for its website where companies can put in their own fleet size, incident rate, daily rental rate and average repair invoice value to work out the savings and cashflow benefits that Credit Hire and Repair can provide.