Pothole damage should be measured as a fleet cost

Britain’s deteriorating roads are generating another preventable cost that fleets should be tracking more closely.

Citroën’s Better Roads Manifesto calls for greater use of technology to identify potholes, stronger controls around utility repairs and longer-term improvements to road maintenance. The manufacturer estimates that better road management could generate billions of pounds in wider savings.

For fleet managers, the immediate issue is understanding their own exposure.

Tyre replacements, wheel damage, suspension repairs and vehicle downtime caused by poor road surfaces can disappear inside general SMR expenditure, making the true cost difficult to identify.

Fleets should consider recording pothole-related repairs separately and using telematics or driver reports to identify repeated problem locations.

Drivers also need a clear procedure for photographing damage and reporting road defects where recovery of costs may be possible.

Better roads ultimately require policy and infrastructure action. In the meantime, better fleet data can show exactly how much deteriorating road conditions are costing the business.

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