All in One Leasing (AIOL), part of UK
Car Group, has chalked up a fleet of 2,000 company cars in the two
years since its formation. Recently it has added to its product
range by acquiring Pro-Affinity, a company which developed
risk-management software for the cash-allowance affinity
market.

Tony WilliamsTony Williams AIOL’s managing director tells
Motor Finance that with the acquisition of Pro-Affinity,
which was established by Linda Upton (now director of AIOL’s duty
of care and affinity schemes), the company is now able to offer
finance packages for affinity partnerships seeking alternatives to
company car schemes in addition to its core contract hire
package.

He explains: “Our cash allowance duty of care package has been
launched to combat the raft of challenges faced by companies
seeking to police and manage staff who drive their own cars for
business. These companies have a legal duty of care to manage the
safety of all employees who drive on business.”

In AIOL’s experience, fleet managers, finance directors and
human resource directors are expressing “huge concern” over their
inability to comply with legislation for drivers opting out of
company car schemes. “This is because,” he points out,
“comprehensive one-stop shop solutions have not previously been
available. We now have the ability to manage this unsatisfactory
situation.”
Williams entered car leasing in 1984 when he worked for Chartered
Trust’s leasing arm ACL. During his time with ACL he studied for
and achieved a Master’s degree in Management and Technology at the
University of Wales. His thesis topic was “Risk Appraisal on
Business Cars”.

He later joined Vauxhall’s leasing subsidiary Masterhire just
when it was starting up. “We introduced personal contract purchase
plans in to the UK,” he recalls, “and at its peak the company ran a
fleet of 36,000 vehicles.”

After a spell with Dent Wizard, where he was European operations
director, he spent some two years with LeasePlan in charge of
re-marketing and contract and fleet administration. While there he
was tasked with disposing of around 3,000 ex-fleet vehicles a
month.

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He was approached by UK Car Group’s directors to form AIOL in
August 2005. “The parent company was a very successful new and used
car retailer,” he says, “with some 10 supermarket sites and around
8,000 used cars in stock at any one time. Some stock obtained from
auctions was inevitably ex-fleet vehicles – so it seemed a natural
progression for the group to establish its own leasing
subsidiary.”

Having convinced auto manufacturers of the new company’s bona
fides Williams established a team of 25 sales and operations staff
and set about canvassing the sub-300 vehicle fleet sector. A
Towquest leasing software system was sourced and configured in only
five months.

“This sub-300 fleet sector,” he opines, “has been woefully
neglected by most lessors and we were able to provide it with
online quoting, access to marketing information and direct lines on
a 24/7 basis. We also have a policy of recruiting only
industry-experienced sales managers which vastly increases our
effectiveness and credibility in the marketplace.”

Funding was arranged on a non-disclosed agency basis with a
number of lessors. The critical mass of the company’s parent aided
this process. “We were therefore able to get the best rate for
customers and at the same time provide them with a free online duty
of care package. We had a viable business,” Williams adds.

With the Pro-Affinity acquisition AIOL established a panel of
retail funders, including those able to offer non-prime funding,
and began to develop affinity partnerships with companies seeking
to offer alternatives to company cars schemes. Some eight such
schemes are currently up and running.

Linda UptonLinda Upton, who
founded and grew Pro-Affinity to the point where some 1,000
vehicles a year were being delivered to corporates clients, says:
“The April 6 implementation of the Corporate Manslaughter and
Corporate Homicide Act has focused corporate minds on existing
weaknesses in their at-work driving duty of care record keeping.“To
date many companies have cherry picked ad hoc initiatives to
implement, such as driver licence checking, but very few have put
in place a fully integrated solution to effectively manage their
duty of care towards employees who drive on business. That is
because such a tool is not available from their existing
suppliers.”

Williams is going for growth during 2008. He is “always on the
lookout for good quality sales managers”, is seeking to increase
vehicle purchase levels by 50 per cent, and envisages “massive
expansion” of the company’s affinity relationships during the year.
“We have the correct infrastructure and the right products,” he
says, “and we are confident the customers will follow.”

Profile: UK car group

 Motor Finance Issue: 42 – April 08
by
Brian Rogerson , Deputy Editor
Published for the web: April 23 08 14:43
Last Updated: April 24 08 14:28