BOOTS, one of Britain’s biggest high street names, has outsourced its in-house fleet department in a bid to introduce new services for drivers.

The company, which has a fleet of 1,200 cars and 200 light commercial vehicles in the UK, has brought in an outside supplier to handle all driver contact, vehicle acquisition, disposal, re-taxation and vehicle maintenance management.

GE Commercial Finance Fleet Services (GECFFS), which has won the contract to manage the fleet, is introducing online services as part of the new deal, offering electronic vehicle selection, configuration and ordering through its iQuote system.

As part of the deal, GECFFS has also introduced a specialist finance product to fund the fleet, called Hybrid Lease. The new deal follows a pan-European agreement announced early last year between the two companies, covering the management of an additional 450 vehicles in continental Europe.

Michael Hunter, manager of business services at Boots, said: ‘The decision to outsource fleet services was based on strict criteria involving strategic and operational ability, quality and cost. The commercial fleet market is highly competitive. However GECFFS was able to demonstrate a clear differential in the way it could operate and deliver fleet services to Boots.

‘We believe that we have managed to retain the service ethos of an in-house operation to car users while benefiting from the operational and financial capabilities of a company such as GE.’

The Boots company, based in Nottingham, employs about 75,000 people and its products are sold in 130 countries.

Rich Green, UK managing director of GECFFS, said: ‘It is especially satisfying to see that our investment in areas such as online services and specialist finance products has been recognised by the customer.’