NEW levels of cost control and management information were the factors which led the 170-strong Watts Tyres fleet to sign up to Fleet Cost Management's self-managed service. The company, which sells forklift truck tyres from 40 UK outlets and across the world from a factory in the Forest of Dean, has retained its in-house fleet department for the change.

Financial director Michael Taylor said: 'We have quite a large degree of fleet and transport experience within the company. It was a question of utilising this in a more positive manner. By using the self-managed service, we expect to be able to produce concise, but telling, management information which will allow us to make better informed fleet choices. Doing this is sure to lead to considerable savings.'

Under the self-managed service all drivers on the Watts Tyres fleet are issued with an FCM card. However, when the card is presented for payment, the merchant calls the company's fleet department for authorisation rather than FCM. As a result fleets are able to keep direct control over expenditure on their fleets and can generate their own detailed management reports from the self-managed software - while still accessing the savings available by buying through FCM.