Menu pricing now accounts for a third of fleet service and maintenance jobs by volume, reports Epyx.

Tim Meadows, commercial director, Epyx

The company looked at transactions through the company’s 1link Service Network e-commerce platform, which is used to handle SMR for more than three million company cars and vans.

The market has reached the point where fleets expect almost any standard job on a car to be menu priced, in stark contrast to a decade ago when little more than standard servicing was offered at a fixed cost, Tim Meadows, commercial director of Epyx said. Everything else was quoted for on a job-by-job basis and flexibly priced, which is now seen as unacceptable for anything other than the most obscure jobs – indicating fleets wish to know the invoice total in advance, believes Tim.

Franchise dealer networks in particular have been attracted to menu pricing, as they seek to retain as much fleet business as possible by offering a high degree of cost certainty, Tim added.

He continued: “In a typical month, we now see that around a third of jobs through 1link Service Network are menu priced. This has risen markedly in the last five years and is, we believe, a noteworthy trend.”

Tim said that epyx expected the level of menu pricing to continue to rise over the next couple of years.

“More and more manufacturers are recognising the benefits in introducing menu pricing programmes as they look to make greater inroads into the fleet market. Also, the established manufacturers continue to see the value of extending their menu priced offering.”