Ashley Sowerby, managing director of Chevin Fleet Solutions, said: “Against the backdrop of reduced budgets it is vital that organisations in the public sector investigate effective ways to reduce unnecessary expenditure across all departments, in order to protect service provision where possible.

“Combined, the consortium manages up to 3,000 vehicles and pieces of equipment, so the potential to make efficiencies and minimise environmental impact is significant.”

The first deal that the consortium struck was for 40 refuse collection vehicles in 2007, amounting to approximately £6m worth of business.

The primary objective was to outline a single common specification for refuse collection vehicles and initiate a single tender process. This resulted in discounts that the members believe would otherwise have been unavailable to individual authorities.

Following the success of the initial contract the joint procurement process was extended to include car-derived vans, panel vans, transits and minibuses weighing up to 3.5 tonnes.

A contract for the purchase of 300 vehicles over three years was signed in 2008. Savings of approximately £270,000 were generated.

Further savings have been achieved when procuring driver training.

Legislation requires drivers of large goods vehicles to undertake further training to receive their drivers certificate of professional confidence (CPC) and a contract was awarded to Sandy Arthur Training in February last year, following a public tender.

Approximately 450 drivers are being trained over a five year period at a cost of £250 per driver, resulting in savings of approximately £45,000.

A four-year tyre management contract for inspecting and replacing tyres on more than 1,000 vehicles was also agreed with Vacu-Lug in April last year. It is set to save £130,000.

Although financial savings are a major factor when choosing a supplier and account for 60% of the consortium's decision, 40% of the decision is weighted in 'added value' factors.

David Parton, head of direct services at Gedling Borough Council and chair of the Nottinghamshire Vehicle Consortium, said: “The consortium’s ‘can do’ attitude has resulted in fantastic savings over the past six years – and has brought with it many other benefits, giving local authorities the confidence they are truly getting value-for-money when procuring new vehicles.

“Over and above this, our partnership working has demonstrated how easy it is for groups of authorities to achieve significant savings on major plant and equipment procurement programmes if they adopt a consortium approach.”

The next procurement exercise will be for chassis between 3.5t and 18t suitable all types of bodies such as highway maintenance bodies, gritter bodies, street cleansing bodies and gully emptying tankers.