THE National Blood Service has created a new national fleet department in Manchester to take central control of its fleet.

Until the launch of the Manchester headquarters, management of the fleet's 300 cars and 475 light commercial vehicles and lorries was left to local centres. National fleet services manager Larry Bannon is masterminding the operation, which will manage 14 blood centres throughout the UK and vehicles including 13 'Bloodmobile' transfusion centres.

Bannon said: 'NBS was historically divided into three regions and the fleet run independently in each. But we have put a structure in place for running the fleet on a nationwide basis and negotiating a leasing deal to replace previous outright purchase policy.

'I am also in the process of recruiting a fleet department of four staff.' Part of the reorganisation involved the fleet using a fleet management system for the first time in its history and after looking at four competing systems, it chose CFC Solution FleetPlus.

Bannon said: 'It was clear that we needed specialist software to help us manage the fleet efficiently.'