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Commercial Vehicles
Which rental road to take
Cleaning companies are no longer willing to commit to long term vehicle deals. Today,
choice and flexibility are imperative in order to keep rental relevant. TLS Vehicle
Rental and CFC Solutions mull over the market
F
or many years, when it came to
acquiring vans, cleaning companies
usually faced a simple choice. For
their day-to-day fleet, they would buy or
lease vehicles, usually using the industry
standard – three years and 60,000 mile
model – while if they needed a van
quickly and for a short time, they rented at
a daily or weekly rate.
However, the recession has started to
blur these lines as many cleaning
companies look for more flexible
solutions. With the economic situation still
far from stable, they are wary of taking of
signing up to a long term lease or making
the capital expenditure of buying a new
van. Instead, medium term rental products
are filling this gap.
“During the recession, we have seen a
fall off in traditional daily rental in line
with overall reduced activity throughout
the economy and this has been reflected
in our experience in the cleaning sector,“
explains Simon Cook, sales director of TLS Vehicle Rental.“However, of their fleet but the moment the need for it ends, they can hand it
the slack has largely been taken up with flexible rental products such back without penalty. For many businesses, that is a proposition that
as our own Advantage, which is designed for rentals running into makes a lot of sense.”
months or years.”
No longer long term
Flexibility is key Neville Briggs of CFC Solutions, a market leader in fleet software that
Cook says that during the recession, with businesses finding it supplies several major cleaning companies, agreed and said that
difficult to forecast their van and truck needs, products such as there is an emerging trend in vehicle management that the company
Advantage allow companies a much higher degree of flexibility than has tagged ‘flexi-fleet’.
other acquisition methods such as buying or leasing. “The fleet thinking of the last decade has largely been based on a
“More than anything one-size fits all approach, with the majority of fleets buying or leasing
as the recession vans on a three year cycle,” explains Briggs.“What is becoming
continues, companies apparent when we look at our 2,000 strong customer base is that this
remain worried about approach is no longer really working for many fleets.
cash flow,“ states Cook. “A large number of companies have lost the appetite for a long
“They know that poor term leasing commitment and are instead looking for medium term
cash flow kills most solutions.”
companies during tough Briggs added that flexi-fleet thinking was characterised by fleet
economic times and so policies that were more closely allied to the particular needs of each
are wary of any long company and were more proactive in the short and medium term
term commitment. than traditional fleet management thinking.
“What flexible rental “The recession has really prompted companies in the cleaning
allows businesses to do is sector and elsewhere to go back to basics and ask themselves
take on the van or truck exactly what it is they want from their fleet,” says Briggs.“When do
that they need without they really need vans? What is the most cost effective way of getting
any of the ongoing hold of them? When are the periods of peak demand?
obligations of buying or “For many companies, the outcome is that they need a more flexible
leasing. approach to fleet provision than in the past and medium term rental or
“The vehicle leasing could be one of the answers
42730 or cleaning-matters.co.uk/enquiry
essentially becomes part to the questions that they are asking.” Tel: 0121 717 7444
54
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