Fleet management and leasing provider Fleet Alliance has replaced a large percentage of the light commercial fleet at construction, refurbishment and maintenance company Clark Contracts.

Clark Contracts, a £50 million turnover business based in East and West of Scotland, has been trading for 37 years and handles construction, refurbishment and maintenance work in both public and private sectors.

The company operates a mixed fleet of 65 vans and 26 cars for its field operatives and staff, all on contract hire. The commercial vehicles, which are operated on five year contracts, are mainly used by maintenance and small works operatives and are all Ford-badged.

The company cars, which are on four year contracts, are operated by contract managers, surveyors and supervisors, for overseeing and managing contract works. They have a choice of five to six vehicles depending on their job grades and order their vehicles online through Fleet Alliance’s management system, e-fleet.

Clark Contracts had been deferring the replacement of its light commercial vehicle fleet because of the prevailing economic conditions, but now the economy has recovered from the depths of recession, felt the timing was right to change a major portion of them.

John Mooney, company finance director, said: “During the recession we have, like many other businesses in the UK, been deferring the replacement of our commercial vehicles.

“However, now that we have seen real signs of economy recovery and have secured a number of high profile clients, we felt the time was right to replace a substantial proportion of our commercial vehicle fleet to continue to ensure we had the right tools for the job.

“We typically use Ford Transit panel vans but there was a delay at the factory which meant their delivery times were longer than we would have liked and we could not get sufficient numbers of vehicles when we wanted them.

“But Grant Boardman, sales director at Fleet Alliance, was able to demonstrate to us that smaller Transit Connect vans were a feasible alternative to the larger Transits, and he was able to order and deliver 11 Connect 200L1 75ps models for us for our maintenance division.

“They filled in the gap and ensured we were able to continue vital ongoing work until the main order of Transits was ready, and we have now taken delivery of a further 18 Transit 270 SWB 2.0 diesels to replace similar vehicles on our fleet,” he said.

Fleet Alliance has been working with Clark Contracts for over a decade.

One of the main services it provides to the company is pro-active mileage management, using pooled vehicle mileages and mileage capture from a number of sources, including the fuelGenie fuel card and recorded service mileages. As a result, Clack Contracts has not had to pay excess mileage charges in the last 12 years.

Martin Brown, managing director at Fleet Alliance, said: “We have a long-standing relationship with Clark Contracts stretching back many years and we are delighted to be able to provide this latest order of new vans to meet their business requirements at this especially busy time for them."

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