Transparency. A single word that neatly encapsulates Holman’s business philosophy.

Transparency in data, asset information, service and maintenance regimes, compliance, acknowledging when things go wrong and how they have been corrected, even full disclosure of the composition of finance lease agreements, including where Holman makes its money.

The global fleet management company believes transparency is a key reason why it has won 20 customer contracts in the UK this year, accounting for around 4,000 vehicles, as well as the much-publicised BT contract which went live two months ago (September 30, 2023) after a year-long transition from previous supplier Rivus.

The addition of BT’s 37,000 vans makes Holman the UK’s largest fleet management company with almost 140,000 assets. It will also reveal two other significant wins shortly, adding another 1,500 or so vehicles.

According to Bob White, Holman president, fleet and mobility, "this is the second year in a row that, in percentage increase terms, the UK leads all our markets”.

Holman will close out 2023 with around 130 customers in the UK, managing 14,500 cars, 100,000 vans (“our sweet spot”) and 25,000 trucks. It funds a further 11,842 vehicles (4,920 cars, 6,564 vans, 358 trucks) on finance lease, some with existing customers, some new business wins, after introducing the service four years ago.

More recently, it has introduced salary sacrifice with a handful of customers. Small now, uptake is expected to accelerate over the next year.

Rapid growth in its finance leasing proposition over the past 12 months catapulted Holman into this year’s FN50, where it debuted in 19th place.

Nick Caller, Holman UK managing director, says: “We will be funding a quarter of a billion (pounds) by the end of the year and that will double next year in terms of funded assets.”

Three years ago, shortly after his appointment, Caller bullishly told Fleet News that Holman would become a top 10 FN50 leasing company within five years, effectively by the end of 2025. That would require a doubling of funded fleet to 24,000 next year and a further doubling to around 50,000 in 2025.

“We are still committed to achieving that,” he says. “Finance lease is growing, and we see it as a huge opportunity. A lot of the success in increasing our lease portfolio has been won from legacy contract hire.”

Here, transparency comes into its own. Holman has quarterly meetings with most customers where it assesses their portfolio to identify the right time to move vehicles to a new lease; for example, analysing any increases in maintenance and repair spend or movements in residual values.

“It’s all for the customer’s benefit not for us to maximise our profit,” says Caller. “We optimise the value of their fleet on an axis of cost and value and our agility enables them to take advantage of any changes in the marketplace.”

This agile mentality also means Holman is able to make rapid changes to its own structure if it feels something isn’t working.

One area discussed during that 2020 interview, for example, was the imminent division of the business into two fleet management units: Complete (cars and vans) and Complex (fleets with legislative and regulatory requirements, such as O-Licences for HGVs, and SMR).

Implemented in 2021, the strategy was ditched earlier this year.

Caller explains: “It didn’t drive enough synergy. Very few customers have purely one asset type, and they want leverage from us across their fleet. There is commonality across asset types – for example we see LCV customers adopting an HGV approach to their fleets.”

He adds: “We saw that quickly and changed quickly.”

New Birmingham office

Bob White and Rick Tousaw, Holman executive vice president of international operations, flew into the country from their USA global headquarters earlier this month to cut the ribbon at the official opening of Holman’s second UK office, in Birmingham. It’s closeness to BT’s head office is largely coincidental; the Chippenham-based company had long aspired to have a presence in the Midlands.

“Our growth has allowed us to invest in this facility, our people and our leadership in the UK,” says White.

“Our intention is to grow organically and serve more customers with more employees.”

Holman has enviable resources. The US-based business will celebrate its centenary next year as a third-generation family-owned group with 8,000 employees, managing two million vehicles globally for 3,000 customers and $7.5bn funded assets. That scale brings significant benefits.

Tousaw explains: “We have a number of adjacent services we can bring to the UK. We are focused on being relevant as the automotive space evolves to electric and connected cars – we bring value to the market.”

Among the extensive list of services and businesses operated by Holman in the USA (some are also in Canada) are the manufacture of racking systems, van upfitting, insurance and parts distribution. None have been confirmed for the UK, although there are obvious synergies; likewise, none have been ruled out.

White says: “We want to leverage our ability to invest in scale and we will expand into other markets if it makes sense.”

One service that is unlikely to be transferred to the UK is vehicle retailing; Holman operates 35 dealerships in America having started life there as a single Ford dealership in 1924.

Holman also has a venture capital business which invests in automotive start-ups, including in electric vehicles and autonomous technology, while its own product development teams are working on ways to exploit the growing wealth of data being collected by the business globally.

“Our goal is how we create knowledge out of data to drive action,” says White. “So we are looking at analytical tools such as preventative maintenance and charging usage and lifecycle analysis for electric vehicles. It’s all about how we can make use of the data for our customers.”

BT adds "significant" scale

The sheer magnitude of the BT business has resulted in swift upscaling for Holman, not least its service and repair network which has tripled in size over the past year to more than 2,000 outlets. It has also expanded its operations team, headed by new operations director Paul Probert.

The size of the undertaking can’t be ignored: BT was the biggest ever fleet management contract win in the UK.

The initial conversations began in October 2021, with the seven-year agreement signed at the end of September 2022. Built in was a 12-month transition, described by Caller as “a period of stabilisation”.

It was a historic step for both companies: BT left the familiar surroundings of Rivus – until 2019 its in-house BT Fleet Solutions division before acquisition by Aurelius - while Holman magnified its business by 45%.

“BT brings significant incremental scale to the business which will help us to drive and bring forward our investments,” Caller says.

There were nuanced differences between the two operating models. For instance, Rivus owns its workshop network; Holman uses third party partners. The latter have been kept busy ensuring BT’s vans have up to date maintenance records.

“We had to take their engineers on that journey to inform them about how things would be different,” says Caller.

Twelve engineers formed part of the year-long transition team, while Holman contacts around 10% of the driver base every few weeks for feedback.

Among the process changes is a new driver app. Launched for the BT fleet, it will be offered to other Holman customers next year.

The app has 13 functionality areas, including managing service bookings, pre-use inspections, fines management, taxation and parking, with more services due to be added. It is already being used 20,000 times a day.

“We worked in partnership with BT to win the hearts and minds of their drivers,” Caller says. “We want to understand their challenges so we don’t make mistakes, and we want to provide them with an experience that is incrementally better than they received before.”

White adds: “Our goal is to be transparent: BT didn’t have that level of transparency in their fleet previously. That difference led us to be successful with this contract.”

Caller underlines the Holman philosophy by using Travis Perkins as a prime example.

In October, the UK’s largest distributor of building materials ended its 20-year relationship with Holman and signed a deal with Zenith.

“We respect their decision, and we managed the transition in collaboration with Zenith,” Caller says. “We are very proud of that, and we will continue to provide the same level of service to Travis Perkins during that process.”

White reinforces that position: “We want our customers to have a great experience from day one until any point that they leave.”

FACTFILE

• Company: Holman Fleet

• UK head office: Chippenham, Wiltshire

• UK managing director: Nick Caller

• No of customers: c130

• Fleet size: under management – 14,551 cars, 99,911 vans, 24,833 trucks; funded – 4,920 cars, 6,564 vans, 358 trucks