Since the announcement of the scheme in September, Oxford-based Ebbon-Dacs, supplier of e-procurement platform, Leaselink, has met with companies across the automotive industry, including car and truck manufacturers and fleet operators from both the rental and leasing sectors.

There is now an open meeting on November 23, to which all motor manufacturers are invited, to further discuss and refine the standard recall protocol.

Robert Pilkington (Inset), managing director of the Leaselink International division of Ebbon-Dacs, said: ‘There is wide recognition of the benefits the project can bring and a strong desire to contribute to it. We have a clear definition of a standardised incoming recall data protocol that we intend to finalise in our open meeting with manufacturers at the end of next month.  

‘We are also working with a sub-group of BVRLA members to define standard data flows for fleet operators and are confident that design will also be complete before the end of November. We plan to deliver the system to pilot in the third quarter of next year and progress to date suggests we are well on course to meet that commitment,’ he said.

Last year almost one million vehicles were subject to a vehicle safety recall notification in the UK, and fleet owners currently face rising costs in administering and managing the range of paper and digital recall notifications they receive from motor manufacturers.

One of the BVRLA’s long term objectives has been to provide a standardised, free-to-use recall system for its members, who own and operate more than 2.5m vehicles, and appointed Ebbon-Dacs as technology partner to deliver the project.

Ebbon-Dacs’ is now developing a web-based vehicle recall system that will provide a single location for all manufacturers to list their safety recall notifications. BVRLA members or their appointed agents can then retrieve the information by inputting their own fleet data for comparison purposes.  

The new system shows all vehicles that are subject to a new safety recall notification and highlights those with outstanding recalls. It also has the potential to cover non-safety recalls, while customers will also have the option to purchase a product for notifying drivers.

‘Our primary objective in introducing this new “standard” on behalf of the BVRLA is to simplify the process and reduce the administrative burden fleet operators face in handling vehicle recalls, leading to greater efficiency, lower costs and faster safety recall handling in future,’ added Robert Pilkington.