Flexi Hire covers the supply of a vehicle of choice from one day up to 30 months, and is said to be ideal for businesses that are in their first year of trading, have a number of new starters still on probationary periods or who simply do not want to tie up valuable resources in a long term lease.

'We have sought to provide our fleet and business customers with a greater flexibility and wider choice in terms of meeting their mobility needs,' said Martin Brown, managing director at Fleet Alliance.

'Flexi Hire fits between short term or daily rental of vehicles and more traditional, longer term contract hire, and greatly increases the number of options for customers. It is very much complementary to our contract hire offering and we see it as a product for these harsher economic times,' he added.

The company has also announced the appointment of Martin Gray as fleet solutions manager responsible for the new product.

Mr Gray recently joined the company from Mercedes-Benz dealer group John R Weir where he was corporate sales manager for the five-site business. Prior to that he was corporate development manager for Scotland and the North West for Mercedes-Benz UK.

His entire focus will be on the non funding side of the business. Initially, this will be concentrated on three Fleet Alliance solutions, Accident Management, Driver Licence Check and Flexi Hire.

Commenting on the appointment, Martin Brown added: 'We wanted to increase our commitment to the fleet solutions offering we make available to our fleet and business customers by having a dedicated manager responsible for their promotion.'