The real cost of a van off the road

Operators compare van hire on daily rate because it is the number on the quote. It is also the least important number in the decision. What decides whether a fleet is profitable is how many days each vehicle actually runs.

What a lost day is actually made of

When a van does not start on a Monday morning, you do not lose the hire rate. You lose a stack of things at once:

• The revenue from the round that vehicle was allocated to
• The driver, who is rostered, available and paid whether or not there is a van
• The knock-on to your service metrics, which are measured over rolling periods and recover slowly
• Management time spent solving it at 6am instead of running the operation
• In the worst case, the standing you have built with the depot

The first two are cash. The third is the one that actually hurts, because it persists long after the van is fixed.

Where downtime actually comes from

In delivery fleets the pattern is consistent. In rough order of frequency:

1. 1Wear items on high-mileage vehicles: tyres, brakes, clutches, batteries
2. 2Damage from tight urban manoeuvring, which is constant and cumulative
3. 3Scheduled servicing that was not scheduled around your operation
4. 4Parts availability, which varies enormously by marque
5. 5MOT failures on vehicles that were already marginal

Note how many of those are predictable. Very little genuine downtime is bad luck. Most of it is a maintenance decision someone deferred.

Why parts availability is a real criterion

This is the argument for a Ford Transit that never appears on a spec sheet. Every garage in Britain knows them and every factor stocks the parts. A vehicle back on the road the same afternoon is worth more to a delivery operation than a slightly better payload figure on a van that waits four days for a component.

When you are comparing vehicles, ask how quickly each one can be fixed locally. It is a more useful question than most of the specification.

What to ask a rental supplier

Downtime is where a hire agreement is really tested, and it is worth being direct before you sign rather than during your first breakdown:

• What happens when a van goes off the road mid-contract?
• Is a replacement provided, and within what timeframe?
• Who arranges recovery, and who pays for it?
• Is servicing scheduled around my rounds or around your workshop?
• What is the MOT and service history of the specific vehicle I am getting?

A supplier that has run delivery routes itself will answer these immediately, because it has lived the 6am phone call. A supplier that has only ever rented vehicles out often has not thought about it.

The structural fix

Two things reduce downtime more than anything else. Newer vehicles, because wear items have not worn yet and the manufacturer warranty still applies. And a supplier who can put a replacement on your yard quickly, because eliminating breakdowns entirely is not achievable but shortening them is.

That is the honest case for brand-new stock. Not that it is nicer to drive, though it is, but that a van with no miles on it has nothing worn out on it yet.