Total Accident Management

Total Accident Management is now providing their new SME accident management to SME customers of Leaseplan, one the UK’s largest vehicle leasing companies. The new service will allow an SME to track the whole repair process from start to finish, live and online, for an accident damaged car or light commercial van.

Total Accident Management provides the full range of services to ensure the repair is carried out efficiently and cost effectively to the highest possible standards. If the driver is too busy they can also receive text updates on the progress of the repair. The service will include vehicle repair, credit hire, credit repair,vehicle inspection, Uninsured Loss Recovery, Personal Injury and salvage if the vehicle is a write off.

If you are interested in the SME accident management service from Total Accident Management visit the Accident Management section on the site where you can apply for more details.

ACFO - for fleet operators

ACFO, the UK’s premier organisation for fleet decision-makers has announced a new recruitment drive for small and medium sized businesses. ACFO membership currently includes many organisations running just a handful of vehicles although most members are in the 100+ fleet category, with some having fleets up to 25,000.

In many small businesses it is usually the company director who is invariably responsible for fleet operations. ACFO wants to bring the expertise from its current membership to help SMEs understand some of the complexities involved in running even a small fleet of cars or vans. Sharing best practise could help a small business save time and money as many of the current ACFO members are experienced fleet professionals, whose sole role is running a fleet as efficiently as possible.

Duty of care is only one area where staying on top of the current legislation is vital for any small business as ultimately the directors of any company are legally responsible. Stewart Whyte from ACFO said,” Fleet funding and acquisition strategies, in-life vehicle management, tax and managing at-work driving, are all highly complex topics that without the right expertise could prove troublesome and expensive to to the unwary. ACFO helps by spreading best practise examples”.

The ACFO website has recently been re-launched and is packed full of useful information. The organisation operates via nine regional groups, covering the whole of the UK, thereby offering nationwide coverage.

Total Accident Management

Total Accident Management, the leading accident management company serving the fleet industry, has tied up with Comparecontracthire.com to offer a bespoke accident management service to the SME sector.

1-Call provides a vast range of services to SMEs including fault and non fault claims management, repair deployment and insurer liaison, driver mobility, consolidated billing, credit hire, credit repair and personal injury cover. Previously this level of service package was only offered to larger fleets but the new service has been designed to help SMEs save time and more importantly, money, by allowing a specialist company to handle all their accident management requirements.

Typically in a smaller fleet, the administration surrounding an accident will fall to the driver and this can be a laborious and time consuming process as anyone who has been involved in an accident will tell you. If you run a fleet of say 2 cars and 3 vans, having one or more of these vehicles off the road, due to an accident, can have a massive effect on your business and the costs can escalate quite rapidly.

Penny Stoolman, managing director of Total Accident Management said,“Total Accident Management and Comparecontracthire.com are closely aligned in their respective operating practices having developed product offerings for SMEs to increase their buying power, reduce administration hassles and improve the service levels they would normally receive from suppliers”.

“Comparecontracthire.com is offering more and more value added services to SMEs and this relationship with Total will plug a missing gap in the area of accident management.

Robert Wastell, of Comparecontracthire.com said “I am delighted with the new link-up with Total Accident Management and the service product they are offering an SME has been designed specifically for them. The process in dealing with an accident for a car or van is such a waste of time and energy and outsourcing the whole process makes sense for any small business. All the paperwork administration, hassle for the driver and cost management for the company involved can be handled by Total Accident Management”.

Fleetnews.co.uk  announced today that they are launching a new SME online service for small to medium sized fleets.  The major part of their new offer is a link up with comparecontracthire.com, the UK’s first business and personal contract hire price comparison site.

However the SME Fleet News site will also show;

- average and national fuel prices

- fuel cost calculator

- running cost database offering pence per miles figures

- residual values on over 6,000 model derivatives updated monthly

- road tests on all the latest cars and vans

- a SME toolkit including advice on vehicle choice, taxation, roads afety, risk management, motoring laws and travel planning.

Ian Richardson the Fleet News general manager said ” Our new online offering is designed to ensure we meet the needs of all SME’s running cars and vans”.

Robert Wastell, founder of comparecontracthire.com said ” I am delighted to be working with Fleet News on this initiative and I believe many SME’s will benefit from this new partnership”.

Connecting with small businesses………..

Battling through the current credit crunch is not much fun for anybody as we all know. Every day on the news you hear more gloom and doom stories, say Ralph Morton the Editor of Business Car Manager. www.businesscarmanager.co.uk

One thing has become quite clear however: all of a sudden small businesses are big news. It might have taken a financial crisis to get there, but at long last  the 4.6 million small businesses out there are starting to get some recognition from government, from the public, and sometimes, even the banks.

Much of the credit can be attributed to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). This tireless organisation is the UK’s largest SME campaigning pressure group. It promotes and protects the interests of the self-employed and small firm owners. It nags and argues the case with the government, constantly reminding Westminster that there’s more to business life than large plcs and FTSE 100 companies.

Currently there are over 215,000 FSB members. This includes the founder of Compare Contract Hire.com. The FSB does well because it makes the case intelligently and fully understands its market and the small business mindset. It recently advised small businesses to get more than one quote before purchasing any product or service to get value for money – good advice in these tough economic times and this can be applied to obtaining car or van contract hire leasing quotations but where do you start?

Small businesses will benefit financially and save time by using sites like CompareContractHire.com and by going direct to the vehicle finance company. There are multiple quotes available on the site, from several finance companies and as you will see prices do vary considerably at www.comparecontracthire.com potentially saving you hundreds of pounds over a three year contract.

For example on a quotation for a BMW 1 Series 118 Diesel 3 Door Step Auto on a three year contract, non maintained business contract hire lease rental , 10000 miles per annum, the least expensive rental showing is £300.00 per month and the most expensive rental quoted is £318.72 per month (exclusive of VAT), a difference of £18.72 per month.

Over a three year contract on a 3 + 35 payment plan i.e. 38 payments that equates to a potential £711.36 saving by using the site.

Comparecontracthire.com is the UK’s first vehicle contract hire leasing price comparison site targeting small businesses. The site also provides a wealth of information on motoring related matters and tries to simply vehicle contract hire jargon in what can be a complex subject.