Lombard Vehicle Management has chosen Europcar over its long-term car rental partner, Enterprise, to provide all its customers with short-term vehicle rental.

Lombard said its decision was based on quality of service rather than cost.

As a result, Lombard’s fleet customers are unlikely to see any savings as a result of the move.

“The intention was to have no change in price,” a spokesman told Fleet News.

“In one or two cases the change of supplier has meant that we have not been able to keep exactly the same price, but the difference is negligible - pennies.”

However, Lombard said that while there will be no price savings, fleets should see an improved service.

“The driver for change was to ensure service quality,” the spokesman said adding that the rental company’s fleet make-up is best suited to Lombard customers’ needs.

Europcar was recently named the world’s leading car rental company at the 2009 World Travel Awards last week and Europe’s leading car rental company in October.

However, this cannot get around the fact that it has some 100 fewer rental locations than Enterprise.

But Lombard is undeterred with the significantly fewer locations and says service will improve.

“Our research showed that in the corporate market place the availability of the right vehicles is more critical than the location of the branches, and we have not identified any detrimental impact on service since the supplier change began to be implemented in September,” said Richard Jones, Lombard’s head of daily rental.

The new vehicle hire operating platform, which has an online booking facility, means vehicle requests from corporate account holders will be automatically directed to the nearest branch

“Our strategy is to grow the business but our focus is absolutely to do this by making sure we delight our existing customers,” assured LVM managing director Stuart Houlston.

Earlier this year LVM launched Flexi-Rental, giving fleets an alternative to the long-term commitment of leasing contracts and the expense of short-term daily hire.