A round up of this week’s fleet news, including; new marketing manager at Leaseplan, Daimler’s expansion into commercial fleet and developments in the French market, washed down with a wee dram.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Access deeper industry intelligence
Experience unmatched clarity with a single platform that combines unique data, AI, and human expertise.
Schembri joins Leaseplan UK
Matt Schembri has joined vehicle fleet management company LeasePlan UK as marketing manager for the UK brand.
Schembri has over 15 years of industry experience, including marketing and consulting roles with ARVAL, Masterlease, Argos and Volkswagen Financial Services.
Matt Dyer, commercial director of LeasePlan, said he was delighted with Schembri’s appointment, and added: "He brings with him a host of invaluable industry insight and we look forward to working with him to continue presenting LeasePlan’s first-class customer offering to our clients and prospects."
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalData
Daimler FS aims for corporate car-sharing with mobility subsidiary
Daimler Financial Services has created a subsidiary to handle its mobility operations and the expansion of its car sharing service into commercial fleet.
Daimler Mobility Services, headquartered in Stuttgart, will develop the German manufacturer’s car2go product, which is currently available to private customers in 18 cities, for business fleet users as well expanding to more locations.
Daimler, which owns the Mercedes vehicle brand, plans to increase the number of vehicles in car2go from 6,100 to more than 10,000 by the end of 2013.
Robert Hemrich who was formerly head of car2go is now managing director of Daimler Mobility Services.
He said: "Car sharing for company vehicle fleets helps both the respective firms and their employees because it increases fleet capacity utilisation and enables employees to privately use available cars at a relatively low cost in the evening or on weekends."
A pilot project will be launched later in the year, he added.
Streamlined tyres for Feu Vert
French car maintenance network Feu Vert has signed a deal with automotive IT firm epyx to promote its services on the 1link Service Network e-commerce platform.
Feu Vert hopes that using the company car and van management platform will increase it’s attractiveness to new customers and provide it with access to several major leasing companies which use 1link for tyre purchasing.
Alain Moury, director of the fleet business at Feu Vert Enterprises, which has more than 3,000 sites in France, said epyx would allow the company to streamline its operations.
He added: "All current and future partners of epyx are invited to negotiate a national framework contract with Feu Vert Entreprises and their company car drivers are also welcome."
Cutting the waste from waste
Fleet management firm Lex Autolease has performed a review of the 300-strong LCV fleet of healthcare and waste services company SRCL.
The review led to the development of a new contract hire and daily rental programme and identified savings for SRCL, as well as improving its carbon footprint.
Changes included the replacement of aging vehicles and the removal of unnecessary conversion figures. The company expects its updated fleet to facilitate moves into new sectors such as courier services and the bulk transportation of critical and patient waste.
Laurence Mullikin, fleet manager at SRCL said: "Lex Autolease provided an excellent fleet solution for SRCL, introducing a number of CO2 efficient vehicles, including EV LCV’s and hybrid cars, which combined with cheaper lease and conversion costs, along with annual fuel savings, SRCL will save up to £130,000 per year."
Bringing down the in-house
The percentage of companies employing an in-house fleet manager fell dramatically from 66% in 2011 to only 37% in 2012, according to the Alphabet Fleet Management Report (AFMR).
The report found that in the private sector, the number of companies employing in-house fleet management fell from 63% to 27% over the year, while in the public sector the decline was slower, from 77% to 67%.
Responsibility for the task had ‘migrated’ to procurement, finance and operations departments, with HR less involved, the report found. The decline was attributed to cost-saving, with more companies outsourcing the job to specialist companies.
Paul Hollick, Alphabet’s sales and marketing director, said: "The fact that three-quarters of private sector organisations no longer have a fleet manager title on the payroll should not be seen as a decline in the need for professional vehicle and driver management. The question is about where fleet responsibility sits within organisations (or outside them if they outsource)."
He added: "The new modus operandi for fleet management today is to outsource the nitty-gritty of fleet operations while decision making on key elements stays in-house."
Leasing Galore!
Vauxhall has supplied ten Ampera hybrid pool cars to spirits producer Chivas Brothers, for travel between it’s UK sites.
The vehicles will be mostly used for shorter daily journeys, but will need to be able to cope with longer journeys, including 420 mile round trips to the company’s northern Scottish whisky distilleries; each will cover 60,000 miles over five years.
They will be fitted with heavy duty, weather-proof and vandal resistant smart chargers and be run on a guaranteed renewable energy tariff, allowing Chivas Brothers to reduce its carbon footprint by 18 tonnes per year.
Paul Adler, fleet marketing and motability manager for Vauxhall, said: "We are delighted to have supplied Chivas Brothers with ten Amperas, which certainly drink responsibly with a combined fuel economy figure of 235mpg!"
By Jonathan Minter, Steffen Müller, Grant Collinson and Peter Johnstone
