Operators servicing their vehicles in-house suffer more breakdowns each year than those using alternative maintenance arrangements, according to exclusive research.
MT’s UK Commercial Vehicle Operator Report, produced in association with Texaco, reveals that vehicles maintained at an operator’s workshop will on average suffer more breakdowns during the course of a year than those visiting either independent workshops are franchised dealers.
While the average breakdown rate is 22.13 incidents a year per operator – drawn from the report’s sample of 500 companies with 52,000 vehicles – for in-house workshops this is significantly higher at 31.94.
Those maintaining their vehicles via franchised dealers saw 15.07 incidents of breakdown, while independent workshops yielded an average breakdown rate of 3.85 per operator over 12 months.
The report stresses that other than completing the job at hand, reliability remains the single biggest concern for operators, with only 5% of the sample having not experienced a breakdown in the twelve months covered by the report.
