The company says it’s noticed a steady increase in dealerships reporting issues with wheels and alloys when they service cars, in most cases pothole damage. This leaves the driver either having to pay hundreds of pounds for damage or leave the damaged wheel in place, risking further damage to the vehicle or more worryingly a serious collision.

In response, Fleet Evolution is taking up the battle with the local authorities. All the company needs its customers to supply is photographs of the pothole and a statement. It will then get a statement and photos from its tyre partner and progress the claim on their behalf including tracing the pothole responsible.

Managing director Andrew Leech says the company has won around half the claims it has progressed at the moment although he added that it’s too small a sample to give definitive stats.

He commented: ‘With all salary sacrifice schemes we try to treat our customers’ employees fairly. Some of our smaller customers businesses cannot nor should not be expected to absorb the costs of unavoidable damage. We felt guilty charging for damage so we have informally offering this service to affected customers over the last few months, with successful outcomes in many cases. It was a logical step to offer this as part of our standard service.’

Fleet Evolution will absorb all costs involved in managing such claims and will formally roll out the service to its existing customers by end of July. In the meantime any new customers or any existing customer with wheel damage can take immediate advantage of the new service.

‘We can’t promise 100% claim success but what we can promise our customers is that we will fight to ensure none of our them should meet the cost of damage caused by poorly maintained roads,’ added Leech.