How product launches will open up new markets for awards winner TrustFord

Four key questions fleet decision-makers will learn from reading this article:

1. How does TrustFord support fleet customers beyond vehicle sales?
2. What are the challenges and opportunities associated with the EV transition for commercial fleets?
3. What strategies does TrustFord employ to handle high-demand customers, especially in the last-mile delivery sector?
4. How does TrustFord address the growing demand for electric commercial vehicles (EVs)?

Just months away from celebrating 10 years in post, TrustFord’s fleet and commercial vehicle director Mark Wilkie (pictured centre above) outlines the operations and strategies of this major fleet provider – and reflects on the market opportunities as new product emerges.  

He explains TrustFord’s significant role in supporting UK fleet operations – acknowledging its five-time trophy win as Fleet Dealer of the Year, since 2016, achieving the milestone in March at our London awards ceremony, pictured above.

And Wilkie discusses the division of their business, with 90,000 vehicles expected on-fleet this year, 60,000 of which will be fleet and commercial.  

He highlights the business’s focus on total vehicle ownership propositions, including aftersales support and telematics.  

The company plans to expand its mobile servicing fleet to 250 vans by 2026.  

In conversation with Fleet News, Wilkie also discusses EV transition, noting the importance of legislative clarity, the role of their Ford Pro Charging in supporting transition - and new commercial models that will supercharge TrustFord’s fleet EV offering.  

Jeremy Bennett: TrustFord never stops growing, developing its fleet offering supported by new models. But where do your key opportunities lie? 

Mark Wilkie: Our route to market for some years now has been a total ownership proposition. We no longer just talk to customers about cars, vans, price and spec.  

We focus on what needs to happen in the life of the vehicle – aftersales, uptime and connectivity and data.  

What we do through data systems to keep vehicles on the road, linked to an aftersales proposition is a unique mobile servicing proposition. We also have the ability to utilise our telematics product, Ford Telematics. TrustFord genuinely offers a 360-degree solution. 

JB: Which customers place the most demands on you and how do you respond? 

MW: It’s the businesses associated with last-mile delivery, so supermarkets and parcel handling because of the high usage, maximum uptime needs.  

We’ve been doing all sorts of creative things, like maintaining vehicles overnight.  

As a brand we’ve got a real focus on vehicle uptime.  

FordLiive is a support system within Ford Pro, using telematics to provide vehicle health data. TrustFord is at the forefront of its use, enabling us to understand customers’ bespoke needs and tailoring a service to them. 

TrustFord has 131 mobile service vans in operation now, with the number growing to 250 by the end of 2026 – five additional vehicles per month. 

TrustFord handles more than 50% of Ford of Britain’s corporate fleet business. Its biggest customers include rental companies Enterprise, Thrifty, Apex, West Wallasey, Europcar and Avis, plus DPD, DHL, Amazon, a range of supermarkets, and Sky and Speedy Hire. 

JB: The big issue for fleets is EV transition. Van fleets appear to be lagging behind car operators. Would you agree? If so, what are the contributing factors? 

MW: From my perspective, we’ve done a good job with the product to mitigate the move from ICE to EV.  

We arguably launched the most challenging product first, a 3.5 tonne commercial vehicle, the E-Transit, since commercial vehicle customers probably have a greater propensity to run a smaller EV.   

So, while large Transit has been a remarkable success for us in the parcel sector and some other key markets, we understand the next step for us is the bigger task, selling Custom and Courier, our next two electric products.  

In retail, our biggest seller is Custom so when we have an electric version – and the demonstrators are out now – a whole new market will open up for us. (Fleet News E-Transit Custom first drive)

Ford E-Transit Custom pictures

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Ford E-Transit video

 

The importance of product - and legislative clarity - to fueling EV transition

JB: A cause of the lag in EV transition has been the lack of appropriate product? 

MW: No question. But as we broaden our range, moving down the weight scale, EV markets will open up massively for us. 

JB: And the legislative uncertainty around the ICE ban cannot have helped? 

MW: Ahead of the election there was talk the ICE ban, that had been moved from 2030 to 2035, would then be rolled back to 2030 (Ed’s note: in its manifesto Labour promised to revert to a 2030 ban, but the DfT has only referred to this applying to cars https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/labour-pledges-to-restore-2030-ice-ban-for-cars).  

There is some expectation we will have clarity in the next couple of months.  

JB: What difference will clarity make? 

MW: One deadline is 11 years away, the other six. One allows you to defer a decision as a fleet manager, the other is potentially in the next vehicle operating cycle.  

Clarity can lead to an acceleration of EV transition plans. There are last mile and engineering fleets that could change from ICE overnight, but it won’t apply to everyone.  

A great many operators won’t have their infrastructure sorted out, for example. 

JB: And if the ICE ban came in 2035? 

MW:  The journey to transition has started for many customers. We clearly build diesel and plug-in hybrids and we’ve established a market for electric.  

We launched E-Transit in 2022 and we have some real loyal followers.

From an uptime perspective, electric is better than internal combustion models, simply because EVs need less maintenance. In the correct applications, fleet managers are starting to see this. 

JB: What is the correct application? 

MW: It’s horses for courses. We have companies and individuals running electric vehicles in the same way as they would a diesel van.  

They consider the powertrain alongside weight and wheelbase, height, mileage along with other factors.  

We have a product, E-Switch Assist, that if a fleet manager comes to us with 10, 20 or 2,000 vans with the diesel or electric question we can use the data from modems – installed in Ford fleet vehicles since 2018 – to look at the usage of current vehicles and make a recommendation that electric is a viable alternative, and which model.  

You could be running a Transit 350 diesel and E-Switch Assist will recommend electric Courier and Custom. And the replacement recommendation can be all or some of your fleet.  

It’s prevented a lot of headaches since it was rolled out in 2021.  

Ford E-Transit Courier pictures

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Ford E-Transit Courier video

 

JB: And it’s been instrumental in aiding decision making? 

MW: There are two camps of customers; those that are ready to commit but want to see the maths and others that don’t want to fully commit but want to begin the transition now before they’re forced to, either by 2030 or 2035. 

Charging infrastructure

JB: How do you feel EV transition will be impacted by the role out of charging infrastructure? You’ve got new electric product coming now, but its adoption will be restrained by charging point availability? 

MW: If you’d asked me that question two years ago, I'd have said it was a bigger problem.  

And the charging situation is only going to get better every day, particularly with larger fleets that are investing in infrastructure.  

Where there remain real challenges are where an individual needs to charge a vehicle at home. But we can solve that with Ford Pro charging, at their home, office or depot.  

It would be remiss of us to think we could provide a 360-degree solution and not have the capability to provide fleets with charge points, in an eco-system with data and telematics input that can see each system talk to each other.  

The charging system can, for example, feedback to telematics platform, how much employees need to be reimbursed for home charging. 

Our overarching ethos is, tell us your problem and we’ll provide a solution. 

JB: Have the challenges changed in nature in recent years? 

MW: The sector has got more demanding. Even if we take out the issue of propulsion legislation we’ve been talking about – probably the biggest we’re facing – for years customers have been asking for a vehicle or vehicles to do a job within parameters, in the field of operation.  

It’s a constant challenge to meet their needs, and we’ve built a business around meeting them. 

JB: Boiling it down to the bones, the principles haven’t changed at all? 

MW: In spite of our volume of vehicles on fleet, most of our customers would say we have a personal connection with what’s going on in their business. We’re not a one solution fits all business, anything but.  

We have service level agreements with lots of customers, but certain fleets – particularly national fleets – have specific parameters we operate in. We are used to bespoking our service.  

We’ve invested in people, infrastructure and systems to manage the vehicle volumes. 

Sat in an office at Long Marston, Wilkie uses its TrustFord business on an industrial estate as an example. Opened in 2014 across seven acres, it expanded to 19 three years later, to its current footprint of 33, growing to 43 acres in Q1 next year. 

Plus, TrustFord’s IT team created its own fleet management system and compound management platform to manage onsite vehicles because it couldn’t find suitable products on the market to white label. 

Cars versus vans: where do the opportunities lie?

JB: Does the commercial market offer you greater opportunities than cars in what you can offer customers? 

MW: It can depend on the commercial product. Vehicles like the Ranger or Sport models, they can fall into the car and commercial camps – used for work during the week and a private vehicle at weekends.  

Their users are making the same buying decisions, and asking the same questions, as a retail buyer would – with the added dimension of ‘it must always stay on the road as it’s servicing a business.  

There is an added dimension to the fleet manager asking more forensic questions than a buyer.  

We need to accommodate both. Our people and processes are designed to achieve that.  

JB: Are e-scooters, robots, drones, the ingredients of a last-mile operation, on your radar as a sales opportunity? 

MW: We are often asked what the future holds by customers. It’s an opportunity to get our colleagues at Ford Motor Company involved. Ford’s Dunton technical centre is the global centre of excellence for Transit.  

A lot of development work for commercial vehicles goes on in the UK. We’re lucky to be able to borrow expertise from there if we need a view of the future for customers.  

But e-scooters etc are not things we’re asked about regularly.   

JB: So, you can conclude that currently the emphasis for the near future is on current solutions, with electric at the centre? 

MW: I absolutely believe that’s the case. Most customers' concerns are about driveline and legislation, and how it affects business in the next few years. We have around 1,000 demonstrator vehicles – cars and vans – helping customers make decisions on what is right for them for the next few years. 

JB: How are you managing the pressures applied by the ZEV Mandate and customer demand for EVs? 

MW: We are on the cusp of a major expansion in our range. We are now delivering the first Explorers and E-Transit Customs to customers.  

A few weeks ago, all we had to offer as a full electric was the Mustang Mach-E car and E-Transit Custom van.  

Now, the offering has doubled. And the order books, particularly for the latter, are significant. The Puma Gen-E's arrival this year will take us into a new market segment. 

Ford Explorer 2024 pictures

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JB: And the impact on volumes? 

MW: Cars up about 15% next year, CV 20% in the next 18 months.  

This comes with geographic expansion. We’ve moved into Aberdeen and Glasgow (car and Transit centres), opened a car centre in Carlisle, with a commercial equivalent in the next few months.  

We’re expanding our CV operation in Northern Ireland. 

A stated strategic aim of ours is to represent the spine of the UK. If you looked on a map, you could see this happening from Aberdeen, through Dundee, Glasgow, to Northern Ireland and down to the Channel Islands. We’ve always had UK coverage in mobile serving, but we’re now filling the gaps with dealerships and PartsPlus centres. 

TrustFord factfile 

TrustFord is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ford Motor Company, headed by fleet and commercial vehicle director Mark Wilkie – 10 years in post in November 2024. 

60 sites, including 27 dealerships and 15 Parts Plus sites 

New vehicle volumes (2024 estimate): 90,000 units 

Van: 85% fleet 15% retail 

Car: 50% fleet 50% retail. 

TrustFord's fleet dealer of the year winners at the 2019 Fleet News Awards

TrustFord's fleet dealer of the year winners at the 2019 Fleet News Awards