A MULTI-million pound three-year deal has been won by BCH Vehicle Management to run communication systems manufacturer Lucent Technologies' 700-strong fleet. BCH has taken over management of the company's car and van fleet and will supply all new orders on contract hire.

It will also manage vehicles provided by other contract hire suppliers until their contracts have ended. The contract was won after a tendering process in which eight companies entered bids. As part of the new deal, BCH will handle the day-to-day running of the fleet.

It has set up a direct line for fleet drivers and will provide its PRoFleet scheme to manage and organise all servicing requirements, a full accident management service and provide additional rental vehicles through its AutoRental division. Lucent Technologies, which designs, builds and delivers a wide range of public and private networks, communications and software, runs a user-chooser car fleet, with suppliers including BCH, but made the decision to outsource in order to ease administration and cut costs, while also providing one point of contact for drivers with fleet enquiries.