Europcar Mobility Group UK has released data on how a bespoke service, maintenance and repair (SMR) service is supporting its Europcar Van customers.

Rivus Fleet Solutions (formerly BT Fleet Solutions) was chosen by Europcar to provide a tailor-made SMR service as it increased its focus on the van marketplace.

The partnership, announced six months ago, gives Europcar Vans access to Rivus Fleet Solutions’ network of garages and mobile technicians for its fleet of core and specialist commercial vehicles.

Access to the network of garages and mobile technicians, it says, has significantly enhanced the level of service for businesses using Europcar Advantage long-term rental.

The mobile units have played a particularly valuable role in ensuring there is as little disruption as possible to mission-critical vehicles, keeping down-time to a minimum.

“The majority of our vehicles on long-term rental are mission-critical for our customers”, explained Stuart Russell, commercial vehicle sales director at Europcar Mobility Group UK. “It’s therefore not surprising that the mobile units from Rivus Fleet Solutions are the first choice for many of our customers when they need SMR assistance.

“However, the Rivus workshops are also playing a crucial role in handling more complex jobs, such as vehicle equipment fitting.”

In the first six months, there have been 82 call outs for the SMR service, of which 77 were answered by the Rivus mobile units and five handled at the Rivus workshops. Crucially, the accessibility to the Rivus network has seen a 20% reduction on average in vehicle downtime for Europcar Vans customers, it said.

With more than 65 garages and 500 partner garages across the UK, supported by 840 in-house experts, Rivus Fleet Solutions provides 24-hour assistance to businesses that rely on commercial vehicles for their day to day operations.

In addition, Rivus Fleet Solutions’ 52 mobile units provide a convenient solution to maintain customers’ vehicles, further reducing vehicle down time.

Rivus Fleet Solutions not only has the network of garages and service centres, but access to specialist replacement vehicles for when Europcar Vans customers’ vehicles are off the road for repairs or servicing.

“Looking back over the first six months of this new partnership, it’s clear that Rivus Fleet Solutions is giving our customers confidence that down-time on mission critical vehicles will be kept to a minimum”, continued Russell. “And the mobile units are particularly valuable, offering the customer the flexibility and convenience of having work done at their workplace, rather than vehicles being taken out of commission for a trip to a static workshop.”