Fleet briefs: Latest from MoDel, Fleet Source, Wagonex and FleetCheck

Fleet Source launches new driver training programme

Fleet Source has developed a course to help fleet operators and drivers maintain their safety and security, and avoid fines for carrying illegal immigrants hiding in trucks.

The dedicated course is called Cease (Clandestine Entrants: Awareness, Security and Enforcement) and is Driver CPC accredited.

Covering subject matters such as clandestine entrants’ tactics, vehicle security, effective walkaround checks, personal security and what to do if a clandestine entrant is identified, the course is the first to comprehensively cover the issues that drivers face crossing UK borders, according to Fleet Source.

CEO Nick Caesari said: “Although the Border Force Civil Penalty Scheme mandates training as a requirement, there is a lack of detailed information from the UK Government as to what this should include.

“Our new dedicated training course tackles this issue by giving drivers the guidance they need to maintain their safety and security, reduce the risk of clandestine entrants, and avoid being fined.”

The UK Government has increased the fines significantly to force the transport industry to take action to reduce illegal entry, resulting in both fleet operators and drivers now being fined up to £10,000 per clandestine entrant, or £6,000 if a vehicle is identified as being insecure, even if no clandestine entrants are found.

MoDel on track for another record year

MoDel is on track for another record year thanks to new functionality, including its improved API integration methodology which connects directly with the customer’s back office.

Widely used throughout the fleet industry to electronically handle vehicle movements between manufacturers, dealers and fleet customers, MoDel is on track for another record year after reporting volumes up 25% in the first five months of 2024.

There were 532,000 vehicle movements recorded through the MoDel portal in the five months to May 31 on the back of strong organic growth from existing customers and burgeoning fleet sales.

This was further boosted by the addition of 25 new customers in the first five months of 2024, compared to the 35 added for the whole of last year. The majority of these were logistics providers.

Michael Terry, Ebbon Automotive’s head of commercial for logistics, said: “The MoDel API allows customers to push data directly to us and extract key data from the system almost in real time, with major time savings and efficiency gains.

“We currently have three customer integrations ongoing with a further four or five in the pipeline. This has attracted a lot of interest and made a significant contribution to the increase in volumes.”

Last year, saw MoDel break through the 1 million vehicle movement barrier for the first time, recording 1,087,000 vehicle movements throughout 2023.

“Based on the first five months of this year, we are now looking at over 1.2m vehicle movements for 2024, another new record,” said Terry.

FleetCheck reports 33% uplift in sales

Fleet concerns over data security and overall efficiency have helped drive up sales at FleetCheck by 33% this year.

The fleet software specialist signed up 170 new customers in January-May compared to 128 in the same period in 2023, bringing the total to 2,155 overall.

Peter Golding (pictured), FleetCheck's managing director, said: “This has been a really successfully period for us and we’re seeing a number of very clear identifiable reasons for fleets continuing to push towards adopting new software solutions.

“The most interesting emerging trend is an increased awareness about software security. A large amount of sensitive information is stored by fleets, and a properly constructed, specialist software solution offers probably the best form of protection.”

FleetCheck’s most popular products this year have been at the top and the bottom of the company’s range, in the form of its entry level risk management app, and its Professional level fleet management product.

Wagonex launches platform for car subscription market

Wagonex has announced the expansion of its white label product line with the launch of ‘Storefront Lite’.

The new platform joins Wagonex’s flagship subscription platform, the recently rebranded ‘Wagonex Storefront’.

Wagonex has introduced Storefront Lite to enable more companies to adopt the subscription model.

Toby Kernon, CEO and founder of Wagonex, said: “Car subscription is an exciting proposition for many, as it can offer a valuable new revenue stream for vehicles that might otherwise sit idle.

“Despite this, there are barriers to entry - such as long set-up times and the initial risk of investing in the right technology. We wanted to help ease these barriers and make subscription more accessible; ‘Storefront Lite’ is designed to do just that.

“By introducing an entry level version of our tried and tested platform, a subscription storefront can be set up in a matter of days, for our partners to manage the full customer journey digitally.”

With the core features of Storefront, the Lite product has been designed to make it easier for businesses to trial the car subscription market with the security of Wagonex’s trusted Storefront platform. 

Storefront Lite provides partners with a digital storefront, complete with integrated digital payments and contracts, plus customer and inventory management as standard.