Mears Group appoints Zenith

Mears Group has appointed Zenith as its funding and fleet management provider for its 4,200 vehicles.

The company uses the vehicles for the provision of social housing repairs and maintenance across the UK.

It also provides care services for the elderly and vulnerable people living in the community.

The fleet includes more than 3,000 LCVs, with the remainder of the fleet being made up of cars.

Zenith has been awarded a five-year sole-supply contract for the delivery of an outsourced funding and fleet management solution across all Mears Group vehicles.

It is also providing a fleet management and pay-on-use maintenance provision across a number of vehicles owned by the group.

As well as providing full fleet management services, Mears will benefit from a variety of additional tailored services. These include a telemetry solution which tracks vehicle diagnostic information, road traffic collisions and fuel usage; delivering a wealth of fleet efficiency data.

Instant diagnostic feedback collected by the telemetry product is delivered to Zenith’s internal maintenance team and mobile repairs can be carried out where necessary, reducing vehicle off-road time and even preventing faults from occurring, says the leasing provider.

Telematics is also used to identify usage outside of business hours, to enable compliance with HMRC rules regarding business use of commercial vehicles.

A web-based portal enables Mears Group branch managers to view all telemetry data, order vehicles, track progress and view vehicles marked as available for reallocation across the group.

They also benefit from online build tracking so that every stage of the build, specification and fit out of the commercial vehicles can be tracked and managed to reduce any delays in the programme.

Jo Hammonds (pictured), group fleet manager at Mears, said: “We have moved the funding and management of our fleet to Zenith because of its ability to provide a bespoke proposition that will improve the overall condition and operational efficiency of the fleet.

“Zenith’s solution allows us to run our cost centres more effectively.

“Zenith is able to deliver a high quality and tailored solution which we anticipate will provide time and administration efficiencies, while reducing running costs and downtime.”