Smart tool gives fleet managers view of vehicle replacement lifecycles

The new tool enables fleet managers to score vehicles and predict replacement dates, based on factors such as age and mileage, fuel use, maintenance spend, carbon emissions, breakdowns and depreciation. Each vehicle can be regularly assessed against the criteria, giving a suggested date for replacement. Adjustments and weightings can be created to customise the tool. "This tool enables fleet managers to look at their worst scoring vehicles and consider their utilisation on the fleet," says Chevin's managing director Ashley Sowerby. "We work with an increasing number of fleets who would like to move away from traditional three-year/60,000 or four-year/80,000 replacement cycles and adopt a more flexible approach based on real world factors. The tool creates a means to do this." FleetWave was introduced by Chevin in 2001 and is said to have been the world's first web-based fleet management system. Version 2.3 is due out soon.