EXPRESS delivery company DHL has signed a pan-European fleet contract for 10,000 vehicles in 13 countries, and plans to roll the agreement through the rest of the world.

Last year the company pursued a major procurement programme initiative designed to achieve aggressive cost savings, after expressing disappointment that its previous international fleet arrangements were not delivering the anticipated savings.

Its new fleet arrangements re-appoint LeasePlan as its international leasing supplier, and restrict vehicle acquisitions to a single manufacturer for each category of vehicle.

Renault has won the contract to supply small commercial vehicles, Ford will supply medium commercial vehicles, and DaimlerChrysler will supply large commercial vehicles.

Peter O'Brien led the procurement project from DHL's headquarters in Brussels, and said the manufacturers had been selected on the basis of total cost of ownership, including acquisition cost, residual values and maintenance figures. He added that brand acceptance and ease of implementation also played a key part in choosing the three manufacturers.

'The next stage of our fleet cost reduction programme will be to address all other major country markets in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and the Americas. This will be a huge challenge but we are confident that the excellent results delivered in Europe can be replicated elsewhere,' said O'Brien.

'We have around 50 countries that account for 80% of our global fleet volume of 20,000 units and these markets are where we will focus our efforts.'

Extending the procurement programme starts this month, with the aim of concluding negotiations in June.