Deliveries will be spread across the company’s nationwide network of rental branches and follows the arrival of more than £4 million of new rental assets in 2014.
Orders for phases one and two have already been placed, totalling 216 vehicles split between Iveco and Mercedes-Benz, with deliveries commencing immediately. They comprise a mix of 3.5, 7.5, 12, 18 and 26 tonne vehicles, including vans, refrigerated vans, refrigerated boxes, boxes, curtainsiders, Lutons and dropsides.
Fraikin expects to finalise phase three during May 2015, with orders likely to total more than £4 million and include a further 100 new assets.
“We’re seeing a huge uplift in rental demand across the country, and particularly in the South East,” Mark Newnes, operations director of Fraikin. “People have long said the rental sector is a good barometer for British business; if that’s true then the signs are very encouraging.”
The soaring demand is coming from across Fraikin’s growing base of contract hire and fleet management customers, as well as from businesses trading with Fraikin for the first time.
This latest investment marks a strategic shift by Fraikin to grow the share of 3.5 tonne light commercials within its hire fleet. Once all deliveries have been completed, almost one quarter of the company’s rental fleet will be light commercial vehicles – up from 10 per cent just a year ago.
Fraikin is also heavily investing in the 12 tonne sector, in response to growing demand from customers keen to increase payload capacity over traditional 7.5 tonne rigid trucks.
Newnes adds: “Rental is all about supply and demand. To be successful you have to have the vehicles your customers want to hire, in the right place, at the right time. We’ve consulted our customers closely and these deliveries will ensure our rental branches have the optimum product mix to meet both current and future demand.”