{"id":11607,"date":"2019-05-23T17:20:29","date_gmt":"2019-05-23T17:20:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/?p=11607"},"modified":"2019-05-23T17:22:04","modified_gmt":"2019-05-23T17:22:04","slug":"3-in-10-small-businesses-suffer-breakdowns-each-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/archives\/11607","title":{"rendered":"3-in-10 small businesses suffer breakdowns each year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"650\" height=\"433\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/vw-t6-6-sm.jpg\" alt=\"Man loading boxes into van\" class=\"wp-image-11524\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/vw-t6-6-sm.jpg 650w, https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/vw-t6-6-sm-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/vw-t6-6-sm-624x416.jpg 624w, https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/vw-t6-6-sm-50x33.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s no secret that some small businesses work their cars and vans hard. When you combine that with the normal wear and tear seen in ageing vehicles, it&#8217;s not surprising that breakdown rates appear to be higher than those suffered by private car owners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the RAC, there&#8217;s a 31% chance that one of a small firm&#8217;s vehicles will break down each year. Batteries and tyres top the list of problems, followed by clutch and alternator issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Breakdowns are inconvenient at the best of times. But for a small business they can be extremely costly, as Nicky Brown of the RAC explains:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>\u201cAny  downtime for a small business is likely to be extremely costly as it  represents a serious loss of productivity, missed appointments or late  deliveries. And, the smaller the business is, the worse the problem. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2>What can you do to avoid breakdowns?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Unfortunately, some breakdowns are inevitable. But many are avoidable. Here are a few tips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>Batteries: <\/strong>18% of all RAC SME breakdown calls to relate to batteries. Batteries can reach the end of their life and &#8216;die&#8217; without warning. But <strong>if your car or van turns over slowly on cold mornings or you suffer flat batteries after a long weekend, consider replacing the battery.<\/strong> Ask for the battery to be tested each time your vehicle is serviced. If reliability is critical, you could consider replacing batteries more than five years old.<\/li><li><strong>Tyres: <\/strong>13% of SME callouts relate to tyres. Although some blowouts and punctures are unavoidable, <strong>many are caused by tyres that are incorrectly inflated, damaged, worn out or overloaded<\/strong>. The solution is to visually inspect tyres and check tyre pressures weekly. With many vehicles now lacking a spare tyre, punctures can be very inconvenient.<\/li><li><strong>Mechanical and electrical problems: <\/strong>These can be hard to spot, but such problems sometimes display &#8216;early warning signs&#8217; that provide clues something is going wrong. Examples are strange noises or vibrations, or perhaps difficulty changing gear. Train drivers to <strong>report these symptoms when they appear, rather than waiting until they become bigger issues<\/strong> and cause breakdowns.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2>Do you need that old vehicle?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, if you&#8217;re running old vehicles in your business and paying for regular repairs, consider replacing them. If you can&#8217;t afford new replacements than long-term car and van hire is increasingly affordable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This offers a number of advantages. You&#8217;re not responsible for maintenance costs and as most hire vehicles are new, breakdowns should be unlikely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hiring a car or van is also more flexible &#8212; you can add vehicles at busy times and return them when they&#8217;re no longer needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you operate in Central London and are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/archives\/11545\">now forking out \u00a312.50 per day for the ULEZ charge<\/a>, then renting a modern Euro 6 van would enable you to avoid this charge. For many urban operators doing restricted mileage, this saving could be enough to pay for your daily petrol or diesel usage!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Renting can be cheaper than it seems &#8212; it could be worth a look.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>About 30% of small businesses suffer vehicle breakdowns each year, according to the RAC. <\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ve put together some tips to help you avoid preventable problems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[178,1678],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11607"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11607"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11613,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11607\/revisions\/11613"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}