Fleet use of franchise dealers for SMR falls to new low, finds epyx

Tim Meadows said: "Considerable upwards pressures on both parts and labour costs have been seen during recent years, and fleets have reacted by making more use of lower priced, non-franchise workshops in order to minimise these increases."

M By Milly Standing

10 June 2026 2 min read

Fleet use of franchise dealers for service, maintenance and repair (SMR) has fallen to a new low, according to analysis from epyx.

A 1link Index dataset starting in January 2020, taken from company’s industry standard 1link Service Network platform, showed 54% of jobs went to these suppliers.

However, by late 2025, it had fallen to 41% and stayed that way through to the end of the first quarter of this year.

Tim Meadows, CCO at epyx, said: “Considerable upwards pressures on both parts and labour costs have been seen during recent years, and fleets have reacted by making more use of lower priced, non-franchise workshops in order to minimise these increases.”

He pointed to data showing average hourly rates for franchise dealers recorded by epyx grew from an average of £70 in January 2020 to £93 in March 2026, an increase of 32%, while non-franchise workshops rose from £43 in January 2020 to £55 in February 2026 – climbing by 27%.

Meadows added: “The move towards non-franchise is not a blanket trend and there are subtleties at play.

“Mainstream company cars, especially from prestige brands, still tend to be serviced at franchise dealers, partially because of their specialist expertise and especially because of the requirements of electric vehicles, but also in order to preserve residual values.

“However, we’ve increasingly seen vans and lower cost cars directed towards independent SMR outlets.