Repairers are throwing away millions of pounds every year by failing to invoice fleets for work.

Ken Trinder, head of business development for IT specialist Epyx, says the 6300 repairers using the system are losing £5m a year on the 1.5m vehicles they service based on an average transaction price of £150 per job.

With the total size of the UK company car parc estimated to be three million vehicles, it could add up to a loss of £10m for garages.

Trinder says: “We don't understand why repairers do not invoice fleets. It's completely illogical and we cannot justify it.”

Epyx is now developing a new common platform, following its acquisition of rival Oasis, that will send prominent alerts to garages reminding them to invoice customers more clearly. Oasis gives Epyx access to new leasing clients, which include top 10 players like HSBC Vehicle Finance, Interleasing, LeasePlan and Motability, responsible for 1.5m vehicles.

Epyx managing director Greg Connell says the move is good news for dealers: “Those who are using both Oasis and 1Link will be able to move to a single platform, while those who are using both will be able to consolidate to one and so will users of either system.”

He adds that the potential benefits of service and maintenance e-commerce have been compromised until now because of competing platforms in the market. “This is a massive and very valuable market for the UK's service outlets, which we expect to continue to grow rapidly following this acquisition,” says Connell.

Trinder says Oasis will bring time and cost saving for the service and repair sector. He vows to speed up telephone enquiry time, minimise invoice rejection delays and reduce the current 120-day payment time.