Thirty cargo bikes and a monthly spreadsheet
A local delivery company asks you to look after their fleet of cargo e-bikes. Another business has pool bikes for staff. You agree, because it is steady work. Before long there are dozens of bikes from several clients, all identified by the client's own fleet numbers, all needing checks on a schedule, and each client wants a monthly report.
Each month someone builds a spreadsheet from the workshop tags and the till: which bikes came in, what was done, what parts were used. The client queries a line, and it takes an hour to find the original job.
A retail workshop system is built for single customers
Most bike shop systems think in terms of one customer and one bike. A fleet is one customer with many bikes, its own numbering, its own rules about what can be approved without asking, and its own invoice format. None of that fits naturally, so it is handled on the side.
- Client fleet numbers are not linked to frame numbers in your records.
- Scheduled checks are remembered, not planned.
- Approval limits agreed with the client are not visible to the mechanic.
- Monthly reports are built by hand from workshop tags.
- Parts and labour for fleet work are hard to separate from retail.
The risk in fleet work
Fleet clients are valuable, and they are demanding in a particular way: they want records. A missed scheduled check or a report that does not add up makes them question the contract. For you, fleet work that is not tracked properly can quietly cost more than it earns, because parts and time go unrecorded.
Fleet work also brings a different rhythm to the workshop. Several bikes from one client may arrive together, or a mechanic may spend a morning at the client's depot. If that is not planned alongside retail jobs, walk-in customers wait while fleet bikes fill the stand, or fleet bikes slip because the retail rush takes priority. Either way someone is let down.
What the contract covers, and any obligations about bike condition, are for you, your client and your advisers. We build the tracking the contract needs.
A fleet module alongside your workshop
We build fleet tracking that sits beside your retail workshop process.
- Each client has a list of bikes with their fleet number, frame number, model and, for e-bikes, battery and motor serials.
- Service schedules are set per client, and the system proposes the bikes due each week so they can be booked in or visited on site.
- Each job is recorded against the fleet bike with work done, parts used and time, on a tablet in the workshop or on site.
- The approval limit agreed with each client is shown to the mechanic, and anything above it goes to the client's contact for a yes or no.
- Monthly reports per client list every bike, every job and every part, in the format they need, with links to the job detail.
- Invoice lines are produced for your accounting system, for example Xero or QuickBooks, so fleet billing is not retyped.
| Client | Bikes | Due this week | Awaiting approval |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delivery company | Cargo e-bikes | Four scheduled checks | One motor fault |
| Workplace pool bikes | Hybrids | Two checks | None |
| Council scheme | Mixed | Site visit Thursday | One wheel rebuild |
Fleet work that is easy to account for
Scheduled checks happen on time. Mechanics know what they can do without asking. Monthly reports are produced in minutes and every line can be traced to a job. Fleet clients see a shop that runs their bikes professionally, which is what keeps the contract.
It becomes easier to take on another fleet client too, because the process is already there. You add their bikes, their schedule and their approval limit, and the same reports and invoices follow. The records also help when a contract comes up for renewal, since you can show the client a complete history of what was done to every bike.
Signs your fleet work has outgrown the retail system
- Monthly fleet reports take hours to build.
- Fleet numbers and frame numbers are not linked anywhere.
- Scheduled checks rely on memory.
- Mechanics do not know what a client allows without approval.
- You are not sure whether fleet work is profitable.