Saving money

When he joined the council in 2006, James inherited a fleet that had been acquired through a variety of finance lease contracts.

“These finance leases were expensive, inflexible and high risk as maintenance was not included,” he said.

“This was particularly challenging as some lease lengths were up to 10 years.”

James moved to contract hire in 2006 using a national framework agreement for all vehicles except one-offs, such as a mobile library.

All the vehicles are now on contract hire for five years, with full maintenance and mileages ranging from 10,000 to 15,000 miles a year.

The national frameworks are ways for public sector bodies to circumnavigate the expensive tender processes they need to follow to procure services and goods.

Also by combining buying power with other bodies, James can effectively piggyback on larger organisations’ buying power and so benefit from their manufacturer incentives.

“This allowed me access to much better terms with manufacturers than I could negotiate directly with a fleet of this size,” explains James. The savings were 15% per vehicle.

Another significant move was to close down the council’s internal workshop.

Following the transfer of half his fleet to Bracknell Forest Homes and the change to lease contracts with maintenance included for the remaining vehicles, James concluded there was no longer a business case for an internal workshop.

A local supplier was contracted and has since agreed to use the Epyx 1Link system for booking and managing services. The saving is in the region of £50,000 a year.

James also shut down the council’s fuel bunkering facility for petrol and diesel as it was going to prove costly to upgrade it to meet new regulations.

He introduced Arval fuel cards – again supplied through an Office of Government Commerce framework.

Drivers are encouraged to fill up at supermarkets, with those who are not identified and notified of the additional cost they are forcing the council to pay.

This has resulted in 75% of drivers filling up at supermarkets.

In the first year, the fleet’s monthly carbon output decreased from an average as high as 46.3 tonnes to a high now of 20.5 tonnes – meaning fuel consumption fell too.

ACFO appointment

James was recently appointed as a director at the fleet managers’ organisation ACFO. He is the first public sector fleet manager to take on this role. His appointment is well timed.

The public sector is facing massive cuts and there are lessons his public sector fleet manager peers can learn from the private sector.

“There is potentially a huge knowledge gain; for me, it is the perfect organisation from which to learn something new,” he says.

Training and driver management

Under James’ control, Bracknell Forest has put 20 drivers through SAFED training, achieving an average 14% improvement in fuel efficiency. It has also lowered the accident rate.

In addition, grey fleet drivers who cover more than 5,000 miles annually and all of the drivers who get behind the wheel of council vehicles are taking part in an online driver assessment programme developed by TRL.

Those 60 or so employees who drive council vehicles went through EST smarter driving training in March.