Company car servicing (tagliando): how often, and how to keep track across a fleet

No law sets how often a vehicle must be serviced. The interval is decided by the vehicle manufacturer and written in the owner’s and service manual. For a single car that is not a problem. For ten vehicles, with different makes and uses, it becomes a job in itself.

In Italy the scheduled service is called the tagliando, and it is often confused with the roadworthiness inspection (revisione). They are two different things: the inspection is a legal obligation, the service is not.

The manufacturer’s rule

The service interval is almost always double: by kilometres or by months, whichever comes first. A vehicle that covers few kilometres still needs servicing when the time limit runs out; one that covers many kilometres gets serviced before the months are up.

The exact interval varies from model to model. Some vehicles have variable-interval maintenance systems: the engine control unit calculates the deadline from actual use — type of driving, driving style, temperature — and shows it on the dashboard. On these models the deadline is not fixed and changes every cycle.

The starting point is always the manual: there is no single rule that applies to all.

What happens if you skip it

Servicing is not a legal obligation like the inspection, and there is no direct fine if you ignore it. The cost comes later, in a less visible form.

Engine oil degrades with time and mileage. Filters clog. On a vehicle covering heavy mileage the deterioration accelerates. Outside the manufacturer’s intervals the warranty lapses — and after a breakdown, the assessor can tell when a maintenance plan was not followed.

It is the deadline most easily postponed, and the one you pay most for in the long run.

The problem in a fleet

With one vehicle the process is linear: check the manual, note the deadline, book the garage. With a fleet of ten vehicles the problem changes nature.

Each vehicle has its own manufacturer — and its own interval. It has a different use: the delivery van piles up kilometres in weeks, the sales rep’s SUV in months. It often has a different reference garage, with its own availability and lead times. And it has a service history that is rarely written in one place.

Across ten vehicles there are potentially ten different intervals, ten different histories, ten deadlines approaching at different times. You do not manage that with a rule: you manage it with per-vehicle tracking.

Three pieces of information you always need

To work out when the next service is due on any vehicle you need three things:

1. Date and mileage of the last service — the starting point.
2. The manufacturer’s interval — how many months and how many kilometres.
3. The vehicle’s average monthly mileage — to estimate when the kilometre deadline arrives first.

With these three you can work out the next deadline on both criteria and see which comes first. The calculation is not hard. The problem is that the information changes: every service done updates the starting point, and average mileage changes if the vehicle changes use or driver.

How people organise it in practice

The most common way is a spreadsheet: date of the last service, mileage, next deadline calculated by hand. It works as long as the sheet is up to date and whoever built it is in the office.

Where it stops working is not the complexity of the calculation — it is that the sheet cannot warn you. It does not tell you that in three weeks the van will pass the planned mileage. It does not flag that you forgot to enter last month’s service. It does not distinguish between a vehicle that is on track and one that is late.

With five vehicles you can keep it in your head. With fifteen, the risk is not not knowing the rule: it is not noticing that a vehicle has skipped a cycle.

Unlike the roadworthiness inspection, which is a legal obligation with a fine behind it, servicing is an obligation towards the manufacturer: skipping it brings no fines, it voids the warranty. That is exactly why it gets postponed — and why it belongs with the vehicle’s other deadlines rather than on its own.

If you want the status of every vehicle at a glance — last service, next service date, a reminder as it approaches, and the work log with its costs — Fleetly keeps that record for each vehicle in the fleet on the Pro plan.

Frequently asked questions

Written and fact-checked by The Busy People. How we check our sources