The firm operates throughout the UK with a workforce of 250 employees and switched to Fleet Alliance after it became disenchanted with the fall-off in service levels and the number of errors it was receiving from its previous solus leasing supplier.
The company operates a mix of 140 cars and vans, primarily for engineers and maintenance staff. The vans, which make up around two-thirds of the fleet, are Ford Transit Custom and Connect models for engineers, while the cars are a mixture of mainly Volkswagen Golf and Mercedes C-Class models for contract managers. Both vehicle classes are contract-hired for three year/90,000 miles.
Following its appointment, Fleet Alliance has now introduced competitive tendering for each new model added to the fleet, replacing C F Robert’s previous supplier with a panel of funders to quote for each new vehicle and then selecting the most cost-effective on behalf of the client.
Competitive tendering used in this way has been shown to produce savings of 8-10% in terms of acquisition costs, and Fleet Alliance estimates it will save a considerable six-figure sum on behalf of the client as a result of employing this methodology over the three-year life of the vehicle contracts.
All of the C F Roberts fleet is now being managed through Fleet Alliance’s online fleet management system, e-fleet, with the company’s group finance director, Matthew Thompson, saying: ‘We find the e-fleet system brilliant to use and it is proving to be a proper database solution with a complete suite of management information reports that allow us to dig deeper into any aspect of the fleet.’
Fleet Alliance managing director Martin Brown said: ‘We are confident that, by employing competitive tendering for all new vehicles, we can deliver acquisition cost efficiencies, while the e-fleet platform will allow the more accurate and error-free management of the fleet.’
