By Grant Collinson, Richard Irvine-Brown and Peter Johnstone

The week’s top fleet stories, including new a contract for Lex Autolease, securitisation from Leaseplan, appointments at Zenith, and UK and German statistics.

April growth in German fleet

The German fleet market for passenger vehicles grew 1.7% year-on-year in April with more than 58,000 new registrations during the month, according to figures from business information firm Dataforce.

The growth represents the first year-on-year monthly growth since June 2012 and the highest monthly volume since April 2008. However, when the figures are adjusted to take into account the fewer number of working days in April 2012, the market declined by 8%.

Growth in the construction vehicle market was 0.9% but fell 8.7% when adjusted for the fewer working days due to Easter falling in April 2012. The commercial vehicle segment grew 11.1% year-on-year and maintained 0.6% growth when adjusted for working days.

Referring to the nominal market growth compared to previous months, a Dataforce said it was "still too early to speak of trend reversal" but the figures were indicative of market "stabilisation".

Lex adds three years to Procurement for Housing contract

Social housing consortium Procurement for Housing (PfH) has reappointed Lex Autolease as one of its nominated suppliers for vehicle contract hire, daily rental and fleet management services.

The three-year contract follows five years as a first-rank fleet supplier for PfH, which manages the purchasing and supply of goods and services to over 800 social housing providers.

Dean Hedger, national sales manager of Lex’s public sector team, said: "The reappointment to the PfH framework recognises our quality and growing fleet management commitment in the social housing sector.

"PfH provides a valuable service to the social housing sector and we are delighted to continue our support for its efforts in delivering cost savings to its members."

Renault-PCL 250 tractor deal

Renault Trucks Financial Services has financed a deal by Renault Trucks Commercial to supply 250 tractor units to UK-based PCL Transport 24/7 through 2013.

The chilled storage and distribution specialists will use the Renault Premium Euro 5 460.25s to distribute fresh milk and cream throughout the South East of England from its base in Hoddesdon.

The company’s fleet became all-Renault in 2010 after replacing its Scania fleet, initially with 70 Renault trucks, and it will now run a total of over 320 Renault tractor units, and has its own Renault Trucks Authorised Repairer franchise to provide dedicated fleet servicing.

Joe Ricotta, PCL Transport 24/7’s director, said: "The results we have seen from our Renault trucks fleet over the last two years have been impressive, with fuel returns offering up to 3-5% more than the previous vehicles"

He added: "We have been very impressed with the excellent customer service from both Renault Trucks Financial Services, who provided a simple, ‘one-stop-shop’ finance solution, as well as Renault Truck Commercials, whose team showed true professionalism and dedication."

LeasePlan increased debt programme due to ‘strong response’

Netherlands-headquartered fleet lessor LeasePlan has increased the size of a recent debt issuance due to a "strong response" from the market and "rapid growth" of debt programme’s book.

As part $5bn (€3.8bn, £3.2bn) medium-term note debt programme, LeasePlan has increased its initial $500m transaction to $750m of five-year senior unsecured notes issued at US Treasuries +185bps.

LeasePlan conducted several securitisation programmes in 2012 as part of its strategy to increase and diversify its funding base.

Zenith adds three to boost sales

UK fleet leasing and management firm Zenith has made three appointments to its Business Development and Customer Relationships teams.

Martin Rogers joins as relationship director and holds more than 20 years’ experience in the fleet leasing industry, including previous positions with Lombard Vehicle Management, Arval and LeasePlan and Lex Autolease. Rogers is charged with supporting and developing the relationships with Zenith’s large fleet customers.

David Raponi, who joins from Arval, has been appointed business development manager with a mandate to further Zenith’s growth ambitions.

Raponi will be aided by Rebecca Priest, who joins as sales support manager responsible for managing Zenith’s proposal, pricing and consultancy teams. Priest moves from Engage Mutual Assurance where she was a business support executive.

Tim Buchanan, Zenith’s chief executive, said the company was pleased to be able to attract such "highly experienced individuals".

UK fleet and business markets drop – FLA, SMMT

The number of new cars bought on finance in the UK by businesses dropped 11% year-on-year in March to 37,194 registrations and by 2% for the quarter to 91,062 registrations. However, new registrations over the 12 months to the end of March were up by 3% year-on-year to 394,615, according to the FLA.

Used cars fared better, up by 5% year-on-year in March to 4,260 registrations, by 71% in Q1 2013 to 21,271 registrations and by 51% in the 12 months to the end of March to 71,374 registrations.

Fleet and business registrations both dropped market share year-on-year in April, according to the SMMT, as private registrations continued to climb in the UK market.

Although fleet registrations increased by 0.8% compared to April 2012 to 75,067 units and business registrations increased by 8.5% to 6,537 units, each saw a drop in share of a rising UK market; from 52.3% to 46.0% and from 4.2% to 4.0%, respectively.

Fleet registrations for the first four months of 2013 increased 2.7% year-on-year to 357,780 yet market share has fallen from 49.4% to 46.6%. Business registrations were up by 11.7% to 34,406 leading to a 0.1ppt jump in market share to 4.5%.

Record highs for used fleet at auction

The average value of LCVs, fleet and lease LCVs and part-exchange LCVs at UK auction all hit record highs in April of £4,998, according to the latest Commercial Pulse report from BCA. The figure was 2.8% above that for March and up by 17.0% year-on-year. The average age of LCVs at auction was on a par with March at just under 59 months but 2.5% above the figure for April 2012. Sale against CAP was 101.38%, up from 98.96% for the same period last year.

LCVs in the fleet and lease sector also set a new record, surpassing the £6,000 barrier for the first time: Average value stood at £6,171, up by 4.4% month-on-month and 20.8% year-on-year. Performance against CAP, however, dropped almost 2ppts from March to 100.9% although average retained value against manufacturers’ recommended price hit 37.17%, up from 35.43% the month before.

Average value of part-exchange LCVs were up by 3.4% month-on-month to £3,393, and by 23% year-on-year. Average sale against CAP was 102.7%, above all other sectors and LCVs overall, while average age remained level with a year ago at just over 79 months, as did average mileage at just over 91,140 miles.

April values in the more volatile nearly-new sector were down by 6.1% month-on-month to £11,286, down by 0.9% year-on-year and down by 22.0% on the two-year high recorded in November 2012.

Away from commercial vehicles, the BCA Pulse report put April’s average fleet and lease car values at £8,592, down by 1.6% month-on-month but up by 12.5% year-on-year.

Although average age and mileage both dipped, by 3.2% to 39.79 months and by 7.8% to 45,486 miles respectively, compared to April 2012, average sale against CAP was also down (by 1.1ppts) to 94.77%, a shade lower than the average performance of a used car at auction of 94.87%.

Electric Blues

West Midlands Police (WMP) has taken 30 Nissan Leafs, to be used across 10 policing units, the largest corporate order for the electric vehicle (EV) model in the UK.

The order follows a trial of the Leaf by WMP in summer 2012. Each policing unit will also have its own charging point installed.