PEARSON, the international media group, has awarded Lex Vehicle Leasing a £12 million four-year solus contract to supply more than 800 vehicles. The contract sees Pearson, whose primary business operations are Pearson Education, the FT Group, Pearson Television and the Penguin Group, transfer its entire fleet from outright purchase to contract hire.

Until last year the company had been operating a dual-badge arrangement with Rover and Nissan, but Brian Scully, head of facilities management at Pearson, said this had become too restrictive. The company has now opened the car policy to allow drivers to choose from a list of the vast majority of marques. All the new contracts are four years/80,000 miles and include maintenance.

Scully said: 'Historically we have been a dual-badge outright purchase fleet, but when the four-year contract with Rover and Nissan came to an end last year we took a close look at the situation and the possible benefits of outsourcing. It soon became apparent that there were significant savings to be made and we could also release the drivers from what was becoming a fairly restrictive choice.'