Fleets need to work out who foots the bill for the sanitisation of cars and vans during SMR, says epyx, in response to government coronavirus best-practice advice and in order to safeguard UK workforces.

Who should pay for car cleaning, garages or fleets, asks epyx?

“Sanitisation is becoming recognised as an essential part of almost any visit by a vehicle to a workshop,” Tim Meadows, vice president and commercial director at epyx said, while noting that the company’s 1link Service Network SMR platform is just starting to see this development appear. The question arises of who pays for the cleaning products, PPE equipment and the time taken, with santisation starting to appear as a formal charge on some job sheets despite neither the garages or fleets believing the burden should fall to them.

“The question is, who pays? Garages see it, understandably, as an additional cost that they shouldn’t have to bear. Their fleet customers, equally understandably, feel the same,” Meadows commented.

Tim said that issue was especially acute where, on lower SMR bills, it could be interpreted as a disproportionate amount.

“If you are having £1,000 of work done, then a potential £10 item doesn’t stick out but, if your car is in the workshop for an MoT test or even just having a small repair, it becomes more noticeable.

“Some of the fleets that use 1link Service Network have hundreds of thousands of maintenance jobs every year and adding £10 to each suddenly becomes a very large sum of money.

“Equally, this is a significant cost for garages to absorb. However efficient they become at sanitisation, this is something that takes time and money.

“One thing that we have found during the coronavirus crisis, though, is that a very strong spirit of co-operation has emerged across our industry. Everyone recognises that they are facing the same issues and they need to resolve them together. We are sure that sensible solutions will be found to this problem.”

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