Looking After Your Minibus

There are many options to choose from when it comes to choosing the right length of time to lease a minibus. We work with organisations who lease from 24 months, up to 60 months.
As minibuses are used for a variety of purposes, this affects the mileage requirements in their leasing agreement. Whatever your mileage requirements are, we will have an option for you (please be advised that the minimum mileage per annum is 6,000 miles for leasing agreements).

Our popular choices of annual mileage range from 6,000 to 30,000 miles but we have also worked with organisations that require up to 50,000 miles per annum and we have been able to facilitate this requirement, as well as finding the most competitive deal for them for their lease.

At CVM we offer minibus safety inspections (minibus safety checks) on your vehicle. Safety checks ensure that your minibus is in fantastic running order. We want to help you safeguard those you transport in your minibus whether they are school children, staff, patients or any other passengers to certify your duty of care. Safety checks are not a mandatory requirement, like your annual minibus MOT, but are becomingly increasingly popular, especially with our school minibus customers.

The minibus safety inspection will cover every single section of the minibus, including:

• Inside cab and saloon area inspections: driver seats, seat belts, mirrors, passenger seats, brake control, steering control and much more
• Exterior, under vehicle & under bonnet inspections: front doors, rear doors, wheels, lamps, electrical equipment/wiring plus more

Once the full inspection is completed, you will receive a comprehensive report that shows what is satisfactory, what is recommended for repair or where a safety defect is present. You will then be contacted regarding any faults or defects within two working days to schedule the work.

You can choose to have safety checks between 1 and 17 weekly intervals and we can also build this into your Contract Hire agreement if you would prefer to spread the cost in your regular monthly payment, rather than having to pay upfront.

Just like a car, a minibus needs to be serviced regularly. Although it is not a legal requirement, if you do not follow the minibus manufacturer’s recommended service intervals (this is usually by mileage and/or age) you may make your warranty invalid.

A key benefit of leasing your minibus is that you can include all the maintenance and roadside assistance as part of the monthly payment.

If you choose maintenance as part of your leasing agreement you will receive: – An annual MOT – Scheduled services (based on mileage) – Roadside assistance – Road fund licence (road tax)

There are many benefits to keeping your minibus regularly maintained:

• Safety - Having the minibus checked regularly will help to identify potential problems before they become real ones.
• Save money - Avoiding servicing your minibus is a false economy in the long run. By having regular services, small issues can be identified and fixed before they become big issues that cost a lot of money.
  
  Regular servicing can save your organisation money at the fuel station. New oil and air filters make for a slicker running engine and a more fuel efficient minibus. Plus making sure those basics like tyre pressure is correct you can help improve fuel consumption.
  
  Avoiding servicing your minibus will also increase the chances of suffering a breakdown – never ideal! This is a costly and inconvenient situation and can cause a lot of heartache.
• Improve life span - Regular servicing will improve the lifespan of your minibus. Simply put, the better you look after it, the longer it is likely to last!
• Ensure validity of warranty - As previously mentioned, to ensure your minibus manufacturer warranty remains valid you will need to ensure you keep the minibus maintained in line with their recommendations. This will be based on mileage as well as age.