Hidden costs revealed by unique ROI calculator

HGV operators could be saddled with costs totalling thousands of pounds without realising it, r2c’s unique new ROI calculator has shown.

In developing the innovative new system, r2c has analysed the time it takes to do even the most basic tasks, from filling out a vehicle check to making a call to chase an invoice, and assigned values based on typical hourly rates for the employees tasked with them.

It has used this time and cost algorithm to identify just how much even the simplest of jobs are costing an HGV operator or workshop, revealing the potential waste and lack of productivity for many manual processes. As an example, r2c has worked out that a fleet with 100 vehicles, working a five day week and doing one driver check per vehicle a day could incur over £3,000 a week in costs just to complete this task.

Using this data, r2c has also shown that huge savings could be made by simply automating tasks which are currently done manually on paper, such as driver walkaround checks, defect reporting and invoicing and work authorisation.

The ROI calculator (available at www.r2conline.com/roi-calculator) allows users to input their exact set up (number of bays, vehicles, employees, etc.) in order to generate the potential savings to be made by switching to a digital management system.

For example, a 100-vehicle fleet being managed by five technicians could be making savings of nearly £1,800* per week (potentially almost £95,000 per year) through automation. This includes

•£955 per week saving on driver checks

•£417 per week on defect management

•£367 per week on workshop saving

•£51 per week on invoicing

And there are potentially impressive savings to be made for smaller fleets too: a 15-vehicle fleet with one technician could still make weekly savings of £286.50 on driver digital checks, £51 a week on invoicing processes and £14.25 on defect management.

Ash Connell, Commercial Director at r2c, said: “At a time when businesses are under increasing cost and taxation pressures, this calculator demonstrates how significant savings can be made by simply switching away from dated paper-based systems.

“And because the calculator factors in the cost of buying and running the r2c software, it gives workshop managers a true return on investment figure.”

The ROI calculator is infinitely adaptable to every business’ needs, allowing a multitude of variables to be inputted, including fleet size, number of checks per day, the hourly rate paid for drivers and technicians, and even the time taken for a paper job sheet to be handed over and filed away.

Once the report is finished, a summary will be emailed for transport managers to share with others in their company.

Ash added: “Our extensive experience shows that workshops are consistently under-estimating the true labour costs of their operations, so we built this calculator to highlight the time and cost saving benefits that are available through using a digital workshop management system.”

*Saving based on 100-vehicle fleet, working five days a week and carrying out one check per vehicle per day. Savings include cost of implementing r2c system. The r2c ROI Calculator provides estimated return on investment (ROI) figures compared to a manual/paper-based system and is dependent on user figures and industry averages.

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