Fleet downtime has fallen to its lowest level since before the pandemic, data from tech firm epyx revealed.
Figures for the first three months of the year showed that the length of time all fleet vehicles – trucks and vans as well as cars – were spending off the road for maintenance and repair dropped to just 1.46 days in January, 1.47 days in February and 1.53 days in March.
According to epyx, these are the three lowest monthly numbers recorded since 1.54 days in January 2020, shortly before the Covid-19 pandemic.
It said downtime subsequently increased, hitting 1.83 days in May 2023 and then gradually falling to 1.57 days in January 2025.
However, epyx’s 1link Service Network data showed that for the rest of last year there was some instability, with most months falling between 1.68-1.77 days, followed by rises to 1.83 days in November and 1.91 in December.
Tim Meadows, CCO at epyx, said: “Downtime has been a major problem for fleets since the pandemic, something caused by a number of factors.
“These include operating generally older vehicles, difficulties obtaining parts, a shortage of skilled technicians and higher demands on workshop capacity – all of which have meant that cars and vans have been spending longer off the road.
“We’ve been working closely with vehicle operators to mitigate its effects but, as our data shows, progress in resolving all of these problems have been both slow and erratic over the last few years.
“However, Q1’s figures suggest there may be a marked improvement underway, which would be very good news.”
But Meadows added that the experience of the last few years suggested future increases in downtime remained possible.
“It’s much too early, we believe, to say these three months of figures mean issues with downtime have effectively been sorted,” he cautioned.
“We could well see further volatility in future data. There are many variables in play that could have a negative effect.”
