Nottingham local authorities join forces to cut fleet costs

Six councils from around Nottingham have come together to appoint Chevin Fleet Solutions in an effort to cut unnecessary costs and reduce excess administration hours.

Councils in Ashfield, Bassetlaw, Gedling, Mansfield, Newark & Sherwood and Rushcliffe are part of the Nottingham Vehicle Consortium, which has procured a new fleet management system to examine fleet operations and streamline services.

Chevin Fleet Solutions’ web-based application FleetWave was selected for the task over five other suppliers and will enable the members of the Nottingham Consortium to benchmark their vehicle and other assets against each other for performance.

“This is a great example of partnership working which will result in the councils’ transport operations becoming more efficient by reducing the administrative burden related to transport information and with the ability to compare servicing and breakdown information on each Council’s operational performance, this will undoubtedly result in service improvements and cost reductions,” said David Parton, head of direct services at Gedling Borough Council and chair of the Nottinghamshire Vehicle Consortium.

Ashley Sowerby, managing director of Chevin Fleet Solutions, added: “Against the backdrop of reduced budgets it is vital that organisations in the public sector investigate effective ways to reduce unnecessary expenditure across all departments, in order to protect service provision where possible.

“Combined, the Consortium manages up to 3000 vehicles and pieces of equipment, so the potential to make efficiencies and minimise environmental impact is significant.”

The new system is expected to go-live in April and works by enabling valuable data to be captured relating to the whole fleet, including vehicles from refuse collection, road maintenance, street cleansing and car derived vans, as well as plant and equipment such as lawn mowers.

That information is then integrated into a centralised system that can produce reports on fuel usage, mileage, accidents, maintenance and driver licensing so that personnel can quickly and accurately identify inefficiencies.