ZENITH Vehicle Contracts has agreed a multi-million pound outsourcing contract to manage the fleet of EC Harris. The deal, worth about £4 million over the next three years, is the first to use Zenith's new online reporting system, which allows fleet customers to examine their reports directly over the internet.

Drivers are provided with secure password-protected access to their fleet details through www.zenith.co.uk, giving a real-time check on any vehicle in the firm's 240-vehicle fleet. Fleets can examine details on their fleet covering areas such as mileage, cost centres and maintenance records.

Anne-Marie Cruickshank, EC Harris group administration manager, said: 'At EC Harris, we pride ourselves in working closely with the latest technology available and we saw this as an ideal opportunity for our own people to benefit from their online systems.' Philip Jerome, Zenith's sales and marketing manager, said: 'This is an excellent endorsement for our new service, which shows Zenith is at the forefront in the use of technology in this sector. In addition, it means we can provide customers with an even better service as our team can now spend less time on routine administrative tasks.'

The changes to EC Harris's fleet supply were prompted by the firm's merger with Povall, Flood and Wilson, which ran a fleet of 100 cars, compared to 140 at EC Harris. PFW used Zenith Vehicle Contracts as a leasing supplier and EC Harris was a customer of Interleasing. The decision to choose Zenith as the sole supplier for new business came after the firm held a tendering process. As well as the car fleet, the firm has about 450 staff signed up to cash for car schemes.