ONE of the UK's biggest suppliers of fruit machines, arcade video games and coin-operated pool tables is switching its fleet to liquefied petroleum gas to slash fuel costs and escape congestion charging in London.

Rank Leisure Machine Services, a subsidiary of Rank Group, expects to reduce its fuel costs alone by £1.2 million over three years.

It will also save hundreds of thousands of pounds a year by avoiding congestion charges once the £5 a day levy to enter London is introduced next February.

The company has announced plans to acquire Vauxhall Dualfuel vehicles which will qualify for a 100% discount when the congestion charging scheme goes live.

RLMS, which operates a 500-plus vehicle fleet under a Vauxhall solus badge arrangement, plans to transfer up to 75% of its fleet to LPG in the next two years.

The switch to dual-fuel vehicles followed a fleet review and a new fleet strategy by Norman Hodges, Rank's human resources director.

Hodges, who took over fleet responsibility two years ago, said: 'We were concerned about the congestion charges for journeys into London and believe we will qualify for 100% discounts to the proposed £5 a day charges by running LPG vehicles.'

The first batch of 60 vehicles will arrive next month for the outright purchase fleet, and will travel up to 40,000 miles a year. Hodges said he was confident his savings would not be wiped out by poor residual values at disposal time.

He said: 'We operate sizeable numbers of small-engined cars. I don't believe there will be a disposal problem as there is always high demand for cars of this size.

'There should be no residual value problems in bringing back large numbers of LPG vehicles to auction.'

Vauxhall fleet sales director Maurice Howkins said: 'Rank will benefit from substantial fuel savings in the coming years as well as minimising the impact on the environment. It is classic win-win situation.'