Bodyshops pay a 4,587-hour fine

Bodyshops have lost the equivalent of 4,587 hours, or 655 days, dealing with the administration of fines incurred in their courtesy cars.

New figures released by Circle Leasing have revealed that drivers of their bodyshop courtesy cars incurred 915 more fines and fixed penalty notices in 2018 than in 2017 – an increase of 11%.

Analysis by the company – which supplies more than 8,000 lease courtesy cars to bodyshops each year – has confirmed that 9,174 offences which resulted in a fine or fixed penalty notice were committed in their cars in 2018, compared to 8,259 in 2017.

If the administration time of each of these fines incurred in 2018 was half an hour, it would take 4,587 hours to complete them. Based on an average working day being seven hours long, this equates to more than 655 working days lost to bodyshops in the processing of fines on Circle Leasing vehicles alone.

Circle Leasing offers an innovative digital solution to help bodyshop owners and managers to save time on the administration of fines and to effectively influence driver behaviour through its courtesy car booking, management and appraisal platform, MyFleet Vehicle Hire.

Commenting on the increase in fines, Circle Leasing’s managing director, Barry Beeston, said, ‘With the meteoric rise in ANPR cameras and introduction of automated toll systems, it is no surprise that, as the registered keeper, we continue to receive more and more fines for offences that have been committed in our lease cars.  

‘We firmly believe that the journey to reducing the number of fines and fixed penalties begins by educating drivers who are given a courtesy car.  They need to be clear before they even turn the ignition key that they have as much responsibility for this car as they do their own and that if anything happens to the vehicle that is their fault, they are liable. This includes racking up fines and fixed penalties. It is also imperative that bodyshops ensure that their hire agreements are up-to-date and easily retrievable so that they can correctly and swiftly administer any fines that they receive.

‘In 2018, we saw a record number of bodyshops install our MyFleet Vehicle Hire platform, all of whom will reap the benefit of avoiding the administration headaches caused by fines incurred in our cars. That’s because the digital system allows us to liaise directly with the courtesy car driver, completely cutting the bodyshop out of the process. This enables customer-facing staff to spend more time focused on delivering an outstanding customer experience.’

The offences committed in Circle Leasing cars in 2018 were grouped into 15 categories. Of these, parking fines resulted in the most fines with 4,752 being issued in 2018 which represents a 15% increase of the same type of offence on the previous calendar year.

Elsewhere in the categories of fines and penalties recorded in Circle vehicles, the number of unpaid trips using the Dartford Crossing which were punished jumped from 1,071 to 1,206.

Fines for using bus lanes also rose, this time by a third from 611 to 913.

And the number of fines for not paying the charge on toll roads catapulted from 35 in 2017 to 318 in 2018.  Analysis suggests that the main cause of this is the Mersey Gateway bridge which connects Runcorn and Widnes, as the historically Southern-based bias towards toll charging spreads nationwide in a move which Circle Leasing previously predicted would happen.

Since 2013, the number of offences committed which resulted in a fine for the driver of a Circle Leasing courtesy car has risen dramatically, almost tripling in that timeframe.