Some have gone as far as to describe themselves as mobility solutions providers, but Parsonson is unmoved by their claims.

“The industry has been one-dimensional. Leasing com-panies have different versions of the fleet management theme but for us it’s about being the trusted business partner for companies that lease or don’t lease – we can help either,” he says.

Parsonson believes LVM has the most sophisticated wholelife cost calculator available to fleets. It’s a claim Fleet News has heard on numerous occasions from leasing companies – everyone reckons they have the best tool on the market. So what makes LVM’s tool different?

“It allows customers to search every single vehicle derivative,” Parsonson says.

“And they can put in nine different parameters, including CO2 and lease price, and the system pulls out all the cars that meet those parameters based on the wholelife cost.”

Utilising the wholelife cost calculator when selecting vehicles for their choice list has helped LVM’s larger fleet customers reduce costs by six figures over the relationship cycle.

Some, says Parsonson with evident pride, have saved this amount in the first year.

Even some of the smaller fleets are able to save £20,000-£30,000 a year, particularly when they are unaware of the real cost of running their vehicles. “Some of them just count the lease rate,” Parsonson says.

LVM uses a panel of eight leasing companies to source cars for those clients with which it has a vehicle management relationship.

For five of those leasing companies, LVM acts as the contracted intermediary; the others are used to ensure it gets the best rate.

LVM then secures the vehicle through its preferred network of 30 franchised dealers – “we can get a better price than the leasing company” – which the selected funder buys and leases to the fleet.

This part of the business, currently accounting for 40% of LVM’s revenues, will continue to grow but at a lesser speed than the fleet management side. Parsonson expects its share to shrink to 30% of revenue.

His five-year plan is to grow both parts of the business, although he expects the outsourced fleet management division to accelerate more rapidly.

“The initial five-year plan was to have 4,000 vehicles under management – we exceeded that,” he says.

“Now we want to be nearer to 15,000 within the next five years.”

'Be more strategic and less day-to-day’

Saul Parsonson believes there is a robust case for companies to employ fleet managers, but he is critical of those who remain wedded to processes of the past.

“We are fascinated by our customers: we see a lot of paper on desks, such as invoices,” he says.

“There is a need for clients to use technology that they perhaps can’t afford. We have spent six figures on our systems so it’s about them using our systems to complement their set-up by taking away the least productive elements of a fleet manager’s role.”

Parsonson says that at meetings to assess customers needs fleets often pull out three-year-old plans that have never been looked at or refreshed