Procurement is increasingly taking a front seat role in fleet decisions, according to LeasePlan commercial director Matt Dyer. However, that has not resulted in wholly-price driven discussions with fleets.

“Most corporate organisations are becoming more sophisticated and ensuring that the right parties, such as procurement, are involved in fleet strategy,” Dyer said. “It means we have to be sophisticated in our approach, which is why we have account managers and directors involved in the relationship.

“We have to be better placed to interact with customers to keep them abreast of big changes in a market place which is becoming more complex.

“We have to be competitive on price, but we rarely see a company were the majority of their decision is based on price. Most will have a balanced scorecard and it’s a combination of all that which leads to the decision. Procurement is only one part of that decision but it’s up to us to put the right bid on the table.”