Fleet News Awards 2010: Fleet of the Year - 251

Whitbread has been named Fleet of the Year in the 251-500 vehicles category at the 2010 Fleet News Awards.

Whitbread is no stranger to winning Fleet News Awards – back in 2008, it was named Fleet of the Year.

But much has changed since then; fleet manager Nigel Trotman is now managing the Lloyds Banking Group fleet and the Whitbread fleet runs without a dedicated fleet manager. For those who took on responsibility, principally head of reward and analysis Jo Rackham, her boss group reward director Ruth Hutchison and procurement manager Philippa Jamieson, it was a steep learning curve.

The change in policy meant Whitbread could leverage expertise from across its business rather than just one expert. The change to the fleet has been momentous.
Whitbread now outsources everything where the fleet team can add no value. It leaves them free to focus on strategic objectives, such as reducing fleet costs.

Last year they reduced the running cost of the fleet by 25% while increasing choice for drivers.

Whitbread achieved this by working hard to understand driver behaviour and preferences, analysing market trends, addressing a rigid policy framework which was hampering Whitbread’s ability to recruit, improving vehicle reallocation and adopting new quotation software to improve the process and reduce costs.

Judges’ comments
"The research and procurement team have grasped hold of a new management discipline after the redundancy of their fleet manager. The most outstanding aspect is their understanding of the connection between the challenge, the causes, the solution and the outcome. They’ve achieved in excess of their targeted savings."

The British Standards Institution was highly commended

Shortlist