SOUTHERN Water has awarded the contract to supply its 1,000-strong car and commercial vehicle fleet to Fleetlease and Vauxhall Motors.

Fleetlease will provide about 680 vans from across Vauxhall's range as well as 380 cars. The cars will be supplied on a three-year/60,000 mile contract and the vans on a four-year/48,000 mile contract.

The value of the contract is not being revealed. Its fleet was previously managed by TLS and cars provided by Toyota under a single-badge contract, with vans coming from Ford.

Southern Water provides water and wastewater services to more than two million customers throughout Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Sussex and Kent.

Paul Whatley, head of procurement at Southern Water, said: 'We were looking to switch to a single badge for both cars and commercials and the combined Fleetlease/Vauxhall package was the most impressive from the seven strong tender list.'

For its 380-strong car fleet, Southern Water will take both petrol and diesel versions of the Astra, Vectra and Zafira models and commercial vehicles will consist of Corsavan, Combo, Astravan, Vivaro and Movano.

'On a wholelife cost basis we are looking at a substantial saving over four years, compared to our previous arrangement,' said Southern Water fleet manager Kevin Shepherd. 'It has proved a real eye-opener in terms of the savings that can be made by switching suppliers.'