Drivers are spread across various teams: the maintenance teams (cleaners, gardeners, etc) generally travel in groups of two or three and decide between themselves who will take the vehicle home. Gas fitters and plumbers are allocated their own vans.

Repair jobs are communicated through the Sanctuary Group service centre in Hull via PDAs which are allocated to operatives across all of the company’s locations.

Mileage varies greatly within the fleet dependent on the region they work in and the job role; fuel is purchased through Allstar fuel cards.

Grey fleet drivers claim the mileage back by using the standard AMAP rate. Grey fleet is an area of the business that Lewis is planning to look at in the coming years.

The company has 4,000 staff using their own vehicle for business purposes, but has already decided to close its cash allowance scheme for employees below a certain grade.

“We don’t put a stipulation on vehicle age at the moment,” says Lewis.

“We ask for a copy of the MOT certificate, look at the driver licence and ask for a copy of the insurance to check they are covered.

“Grey fleet is part of the five-year plan for the business and I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

Open choice of car models

The 350 company car fleet, also bought outright, is split between 200 job-need vehicles which travel more than 8,500 miles a year, and 150 perk users.

Both have an open choice of manufacturer models within their options banding, which is based on P11D pricing.

“We have a cap of 130g/km for company cars. It was at that level when I joined the group and I am quite comfortable to keep it there for the next couple of years,” Lewis says.