Residential property management specialist, Mainstay Group, has appointed vehicle funding and fleet management provider, Fleet Alliance, to automate the management of its mixed fleet of cars and vans.

Mainstay, which has offices in Worcester and London, operates throughout the UK with a workforce of 470 employees and previously relied on a manual system to manage its fleet of 60 cars and vans. 

But, following its appointment, Fleet Alliance has moved all vehicles onto its online fleet management system, e-fleet, which offers acomprehensive suite of reports and allows the interrogation of any aspect of the fleet operation.

At the same time, through e-fleet, drivers have the choice of six makes, including Ford, Vauxhall, Seat, Volkswagen, Audi and Toyota, while senior management grades can also choose from BMW and Mercedes models.

A new fleet policy has been designed to encourage uptake of vehicles with carbon emissions of 120g/km or less, with a ‘green’ option of a Toyota Auris hybrid for any drivers who want to experience a petrol-electric powered vehicle.

Mainstay also operates 17 Renault Trafic and Citroen Berlingo light commercial vehicles for facilities staff, and contract hires both cars and vans for three years/60,000 miles.

However, new vehicle contracts are based on actual mileages driven to generate further savings within the fleet, while Fleet Alliance manages the company mileage quarterly to ensure drivers are within contract mileage and to avoid any potential excess mileage charges. Any contracts for vehicles under the agreed mileage can be amended and all savings generated passed on to Mainstay during the life of the contract.

Mainstay company car drivers can now utilise the e-fleet platform for new vehicle ordering online, while managers use the system to generate reports into various aspects of the operation of the fleet, including predictive mileage and P11D reporting. 

The company has also introduced the e-fleet mobile app for all drivers as it allows them to update business and private mileage, electronically complete vehicle inspection reports and access key support services remotely through their smart phones and other mobile devices.

Drivers can also book their next service directly through the app with nominated dealerships and independent garages, this speeding up the whole service delivery process.

For all new vehicles added to the fleet, Fleet Alliance has introduced panel of funders to competitively tender for every new model and then selects the most cost-effective on behalf of the client. Used in this way, competitive tendering can reduce acquisition costs by 8-10% costs.

Karen Fox, head of employee services at Mainstay, said: "Under our previous system, the availability of quality management information was very limited. We also operated a manual system for tracking and recording our vehicles, while the ordering of new company vehicles was labour intensive in the extreme.

"Now, by moving all of our fleet onto the e-fleet platform, we have an accurate record of all vehicles on the fleet, their mileages, service intervals and driver details.

"We find the e-fleet system brilliant to use and it provides us with excellent management information. It is a very user friendly system for not only Employee Services and our Accounts Department, but also for our remote workers who can access information via their phones or iPads, giving our drivers better access to their vehicle information 24/7.

“We have also found that the customer service from Fleet Alliance has been top class, and Madelaine Webster, Jill Devlin and Usman Ahmad all provide a first rate and very professional level of service,” she said.

Fleet Alliance managing director Martin Brown (pictured) added: "We are delighted to have been able to fully automate the management of  the Mainstay Group fleet through our e-fleet platform.

"This also extends the range of services available to Mainstay drivers and allows them to not only access their details at any time, but also to provide key fleet information, such as vehicle condition and mileage reports, while working remotely," he said. 

 

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