When does a workshop become ‘too small’ for your fleet size?

By Josh West

For most operations managers in busy fleets, a growing business is always good news.

But for those still operating in their original premises — one designed for a smaller fleet — your fleet workshop’s size requirements can soon outstrip the space you have.

Expanding or relocating will never be easy or fast. So the best practice is to get ahead of the problem: to see the early signs that you’re outgrowing your premises, and put a plan in place so you can budget (and allow time) for the inevitable upgrade to your workshop’s space.

Here’s where you should be looking when you’re thinking about the size requirements of your fleet workshop:

Workshop bay size requirements

In the early days of the business, many fleet workshops plan around the standard guidance for the size of their bays — such as the DVSA’s guidance for Class 7 MOT bays.

But as your fleet expands into new types of vehicles (like HGVs, articulated lorries, or agricultural vehicles), those standard bay sizes might not be enough.

Similarly, as your fleet expands, it needs additional equipment and upgrades, adding larger pieces of kit into the existing space allocated for your bays.

So regardless of the size you need now, you should always plan an extra buffer of space — for both new vehicles in the future, and new equipment.

Bay type: Recommended size: Allows for:
Diagnostic bay 600 – 800 sq ft  

 
Standard repair bay 800 – 1200 sq ft Heavy-duty vehicle lifts

Tool storage

 

Number of bays

Most fleets grow continuously, while the size of your workshop can only ever grow with infrequent upgrades.

That means there’s a real danger that your fleet will outstrip your workshop capacity — and you need to look far ahead to prevent and plan for it.

One simple way to give you a baseline understanding is to calculate the bare minimum you need to keep up with your routine vehicle servicing:

Max capacity = Number of bays x Services per day x Working days
in a period

 

Let’s say you have:

  • A fleet of 120 vehicles

In a single day, your 3 bays can service 6 vehicles. So over a month of 20 working days, you can service 120 vehicles each month before the next service is due.

Your workshop is already at maximum capacity for the fleet you have — and that’s just for the bare minimum of routine, scheduled services.

It doesn’t account for emergency repairs or delays in your schedule. So after crunching the numbers, you can see that your workshop is already ‘too small’ for the size required by your fleet.

Storage and parts

With so much focus on vehicle bays and equipment, it’s easy to overlook storage as a size requirement for your fleet workshop. But as your fleet grows and your workshop gets busier, adding more bays isn’t the only problem you face.

You need more parts kept in stock for the higher turnover of vehicles, and more parts stored locally to the bays and workstations where they’re used.

As your fleet grows and you add more workshop bays, a small storage area won’t be enough — and nor will a single storage area that serves an entire workshop from one location.

Every minute your teams spend travelling across your workshop means lost productivity and billable hours — just like every minute they spend hunting for a part in a cramped and disorganised storage space.

So as well as expanding their storage spaces to meet their growing demand, lots of workshops are opting for modular workshop storage units installed throughout their fleet workshops, helping them to cut down on wasted travel time by storing tools and utilities next to the workstations that need them.

Planning for expansion?

We’re known as a leading supplier of heavy-duty workshop equipment.

But we’re also experienced designers of complete workshop fitouts, helping fleet operators to plan and install new workshops that give them the size and space they need for their fleets.

We can help you with:

  • Design consultations
  • CAD design and technical drawings
  • Groundworks and utility systems
  • Electrical work and flooring
  • Project management for your new workshop.

So if you’re scaling your fleet and looking to upgrade your workshop to match, start a chat with one of our workshop experts — and we’ll talk you through your options to make the best choices for the future.