Medium term rental specialist Meridian Vehicle Solutions is to increasingly target corporate fleet customers from the second half of this year.

Currently, Meridian provides its services almost exclusively through third party leasing companies, but is in the process of assembling a direct sales team.

Phil Jerome, managing director, explained: “We have no intention of competing with our existing leasing company base and, in fact, will consciously avoid targeting their customers.

“However, our existing model does close off a large potential potential area of the market for us, and it makes sense for us to start exploiting the potential that exists there.

“The feedback we receive from the market is that there is growing interest in medium-term rental and we intend to position ourselves as the key supplier in the sector.”

Jerome added that recruitment of the new team would start with a sales manager, who would then be responsible for formulating the right strategy for the company.

“We see a lot of potential from fleets who need a 3-6 month rental solution to cover situations such as probationary periods, short term contracts, pool cars and more.

“The challenge we face is translating interest in medium term rental into genuine demand for the product from organisations for which it would be effective and efficient solution.”