The Fleet Industry Advisory Group (FIAG) has helped cancer charity Hope for Tomorrow to tender for its next generation of mobile chemotherapy units.

FIAG is the brainchild of industry veteran Geoffrey Bray and a team of highly experienced professional fleet managers who collectively have around 200 years’ experience in running vehicle operations.

Utilising the wealth of knowledge and experience of Bray and a trio of founding members, Hope for Tomorrow, a national charity dedicated to bringing cancer treatment closer to patients’ homes by providing a mobile chemotherapy unit to every oncology unit within the UK, has launched its eleventh Mercedes-Benz-based vehicle.

Annually FIAG, a not-for-profit organisation, plans to make a donation to Hope for Tomorrow, but the charity tapped into the advice available in drawing up a specification tender document for its second generation units.

The FIAG team, led by Freddie Watts, fleet and transport contracts manager at Office Depot, and also including Graham Bellman, director of fleet services, Travis Perkins, Peter Weston, formerly in charge of the Home Retail Group fleet, and Bray, executive chairman Fleet Service Great Britain, helped draw up the bodybuilder tender document providing technical assistance.

Together the FIAG team and Hope for Tomorrow evaluated the responses and compiled a shortlist of bodybuilders. Following a site visit, Bristol-based WH Bence Coachworks was selected as the preferred business to specify and build the trailer-based chemotherapy unit on a Mercedes-Benz chassis and cab.

Bray said: “Based on Hope for Tomorrow’s requirements, the FIAG team used its collective experience in assisting the charity to compile a high-level tender document utilising best practice and delivering a range of added value benefits. A tightly defined specification made it straight-forward for bodybuilders to respond.

“We helped Hope for Tomorrow step-by-step through the whole tender process and are delighted to have played a part in the development of the charity’s second generation of chemotherapy units.”

Bray, who is also a Hope for Tomorrow patron, added: “The costs involved with running fleets are enormous, and one of FIAG’s key roles is to reintroduce into the fleet management process individuals with a clear understanding and the necessary skill and knowledge to deliver professional fleet management.

“FIAG’s founding members are assisting in that goal by using their skill, knowledge and experience gathered over many years to spread purchasing and operational best practice across other organisations and to less experienced fleet managers.”

Each mobile chemotherapy unit costs £260,000 to build and maintain for the first three years. It is the charity’s dream to have a mobile chemotherapy unit serving every county across the UK helping as many cancer patients as possible by reducing the miles they have to travel, the associated parking costs and waiting times for treatment and allowing them to have their treatment closer to home.

The second generation mobile chemotherapy units incorporate a range of features and improvement that reflect feedback received by patients and medical teams since the first unit was launched eight years ago.

Specification enhancements include:

• Replacing a roof-mounted air conditioning unit with a medical grade system that changes the fresh air every eight minute
• Utilising a ‘super silent’ generator eliminating any requirement for an external power supply
• Visual improvements to offer a more comfortable patient experience including a number of backlit images brightening up the environment to provide a distraction to the medical procedure taking place.

The charity’s founder Christine Mills said: “The rapid expansion of the charity necessitated that we adopted a tender-based approached.

“FIAG offered to help and its expertise and advice enabled Hope for Tomorrow to put together a thoroughly professional tender process, that achieved our objectives of obtaining value for money and working in partnership with one of the UK’s leading bodybuilders. We are very pleased with the outcome.”