A round-joup of the week’s fleet news including ALD down under, ReCare for LeasePlan and Arval, Vauxhall and driving students, the CD-BT deal, Lex’s EV offer, Toyota-Lexus’ commitments, Tusker’s survey findings and new cars and website for trg.
ALD Automotive and Wheels Oz-bound
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ALD Automotive and its North American partner Wheels Inc have formed a strategic partnership with Australian-based company FleetPartners.
The move has provided ALD and Wheels Inc with local support for its large international clients operating in the emerging Asia-Pacifc region, as well as consolidating the fleet of the three partners to 1.3 million vehicles in 43 countries.
The strategic initiative does not involve any asset purchase or share transfer between the partners.
The move follows that of fellow French fleet lessor Arval into the Asia-Pacific region.
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By GlobalDataLeasePlan and Arval join ReCare scheme
Leasing Companies LeasePlan and Arval have joined Ford and Volvo in adopting the free-to-use ReCare safety recall scheme.
The ReCare programme was established by the Oxford based online solutions provider Ebbon-Dacs for the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVLA) with the intention of providing a single location for all manufacturers to list their safety recall notifications.
Steve Molyneux, commercial director at Ebbon-Dacs, said the company "has trusted and long term business and technical relationships with both Arval and Leaseplan and it has been great to work with them on this program. The size of their fleets, with tens of thousands of vehicles, makes them ideal early adopters for ReCare."
Ebbon-Dacs has been working for the last year to develop a web-based vehicle recall system that shows all vehicles subject to a safety recall or any issue that a manufacturer wishes to make a proactive notification about, and highlights those vehicles to their fleet operator.
Potential finance in Vauxhall driving school fleet
Vauxhall has signed a new deal with Red, the UK’s second-largest driving school, which will see more than 1,000 cars supplied on an annual basis.
Red trains over 100,000 people to drive every year and former students will also be offered access to deals and finance options, such as a Flexible Finance scheme, through Vauxhall’s Partners Programme.
Industry research has shown that new drivers have a strong affinity for the car they learnt to drive in, with many going on to buy the same model as their driving instructor.
Andy Mitchell, commercial director of RED Driving School said: "Our instructors have always been incredibly happy with the Corsas we offer with our full franchise and we know our pupils enjoy learning in them, so we will no doubt see many of them choosing to continue to drive a Vauxhall once they pass their test."
CD BT WWW deal
Vehicle remarketer CD Auction Group has been awarded preferred supplier status for employee and affinity sales for BT Fleet and announced the launch of an online pool fleet management platform which can be custom-branded for individual contract hire and fleet operators.
Roger Woodward, managing director of CD Auction Group said current economic conditions meant "fleet operators need to maximise vehicle usage, control costs and reduce supply chain.
"Only then should they worry about achieving the very best resale value by the most efficient sales channel."
Lex and POD half-price charge
Electric vehicle (EV) charging company POD Point has partnered with fleet lessor Lex Autolease in a deal which will allow Lex customers to install electric vehicle charge points at the workplace or homes of its EV fleet cars users at half the usual price.
The Solo2 Communicating charge point will be available to Lex Autolease customers for £500 including VAT a free online account to allow users to monitor the electricity situation.
The POD Point Solo 2 communicating charge point has an inbuilt GPRS system, allowing two way communications between the charge point and a web-based account, allowing businesses to detail the amount of electricity supplied to each user.
Erik Fairbairn, chief executive of POD Point, commented: "The electricity supplied to EV drivers is not currently a taxable benefit, but may become so in the future – so electricity provision to individual drivers will need to be reported. The efficiency of the vehicles will need to be monitored, and as will reductions in CO2 emissions, so they can be offset against targets."
Toyota and Lexus announce fleet commitments
Toyota and Lexus Fleet Services have drawn up a new Fleet Service Charter, which sets out how it intends to address the needs of business customers and expectations in every area of its operations.
The charter presents a series of commitments for both sales and aftersales services, including a focus on price transparency, customer communications, whole-life cost advice, service delivery and sales and aftersales.
Ewan Sheperd, general manager of Toyota and Lexus Fleet Services, said: "Our Fleet Charter makes clear the range of services and commitments we offer our business customers, and shows how we are addressing the issues that are important to them."
Size-sacrifice cars up in Tusker polls
Following an analysis of all new cars ordered under its salary sacrifice scheme SS4C, contract hire and salary sacrifice company Tusker has found salary sacrifice drivers generally select small-engined, low-carbon-emitting vehicles with frugal fuel consumption.
A second, unrelated survey of 1,000 drivers using SS4C found four of the top five most appealing aspects of the scheme were its low cost.
The company noted the majority of salary sacrifice cars were 1600cc or less, with the most popular choice being the Ford Fiesta, followed by the Seat Ibiza and the Citroen DS3.
Mark Sinclar, Tusker’s chief operating officer, noted: "Just outside of the Top 10 we were also starting to see some take up of larger, family cars with low emissions which shows that drivers are now realising that low emissions don’t necessarily have to mean small cars which may not be as suited to the hustle and bustle of family life."
New Hyundais and website for trg
Short- and long-term car hire company trg Vehicle Hire, part of trg Logistics Group, has taken delivery of the first batch of 23 vehicles as part of a total order of 50 new Hyundai vehicles.
The first delivery includes eight new i20 Actives, nine i30 Active Hatchback and six i40 Premium Saloons, with the remaining 27 vehicles due to be delivered over the next six months.
The new cars are part of the company’s renewal programme to replace a mixture of marques that have come to the end of their operational life.
Nigel Schroder, managing director of trg Vehicle Hire, explained: "We need cars that are attractive to customers, but also need the fleet to satisfy the business needs too."
trg has also launched www.trglogistics.co.uk for use by potential drivers, internal staff recruits as well as existing and new customers.
According to Nick Gordon, chief executive officer at trg Logistics, "the rationale behind the new website is to make it easier for drivers to apply for jobs within the trg network as well as for customers, and potential new customers, who need to recruit additional drivers, logistics or warehousing staff through extensive resources at trg."
As well as job listings, the new trg website outlines the company’s World Class Driver programme, together with providing full details of the trg distribution fleet, summaries of the latest trg news as well as client testimonials.
