ATS Euromaster is winning the majority of the service, maintenance and repair (SMR) work across Forward Vehicle Rental’s 1800-strong car and van fleet after being put to the test in a mystery shopping exercise which saw it perform “flawlessly”.

Chris Driscoll, managing director of the Shropshire-based leasing company, took direct action after being repeatedly quoted for maintenance work which wasn’t required by previous suppliers.

“We manage our fleet closely – we’re experts at what we do and it’s why our customers keep coming back to us. We won’t stand for unnecessary charging,” he explained.

“On one occasion we advised a customer to take their car in to our service provider for two new front tyres. A few hours later the garage called requesting authorisation for four new tyres, stating they were all between 1.6mm and 2mm.

“We’d physically inspected the tyres ourselves that morning – we knew the rears had precisely 4.3mm of tread remaining. It was the final straw.”

Following this, Driscoll decided to mystery-shop an alternative national service provider and visited his local ATS Euromaster posing as a lease car driver.

He said: “I knew what work was required, but I asked the ATS Euromaster technician to give the car a free vehicle health check. He identified precisely the work I was expecting, quoted a fair price and completed the job quickly. When I got back to my office I called ATS and arranged a meeting with the local account manager.”

Forward Vehicle Rental is now using ATS Euromaster for 70% of its tyre service work and expects this to rise to 97% by the end of 2011.

In addition to routine tyre repair and replacement, ATS Euromaster is carrying out scheduled car park tyre safety inspections within customer fleets, on occasions when groups of vehicles are parked together in the same location.

ATS Euromaster is also undertaking the majority of mechanical SMR work, including scheduled maintenance servicing. Typical fleet assets include Vauxhall Vivaro, Astra & Insignia, Renault Trafic & Megane, Skoda Yeti, Hyundai Santa Fe, BMW 3 & 5 Series and Citroen Relays.

Peter Fairlie, group sales director of ATS Euromaster, said: “Forward Vehicle Rental is a professional leasing business with very high standards, which we’re delighted to be able to meet.

“When it comes to measuring tread depths our vehicle inspection form requires that the tread depth is recorded in three places across the tyre. This not only helps us to get the most accurate measurements, but ensures we can spot and rectify alignment issues to help fleets get the maximum tyre life.”

Forward Vehicle Rental’s fleet is split 60/40 between light commercials and cars. Vehicles are supplied on contracts ranging from three months to three years, with only a small percentage on longer term agreements.
 

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