Van fleets should keep a close watch on the maintenance regimes of daily rental suppliers as the recession continues, warns TLS Vehicle Rental.

The GE-owned company says that pressure on costs means that some van rental companies are reducing their overheads by cutting expenditure on essential routine maintenance and servicing.

Simon Cook, sales director at TLS, explained: “We have recently won at least two deals from competitors based on the fact that the customers involved believed that their existing rental companies were no longer taking maintenance as seriously as they should.”

Cook believes companies need to look carefully at their daily rental suppliers to ensure that they understand the implications of legislation such as the Corporate Manslaughter Act and are working to ensure that its requirements are being met.