The funding specialist identified €76 million of total cost savings for its European fleet customers in 2009 by examining every element of the fleet mix, from contract extensions to CO2 emissions. 

The saving opportunities were created by GE Capital’s Key Solutions team – a sales independent fleet consultancy service focused on helping drive down the cost of running car fleets.

In descending order, the areas of highest cost savings identified during the year include:

• Contract optimisation analysis (€22.5 million):  Driven by reviewing contract extension opportunities and advising on the most cost effective model
• Car choice criteria (€8.8 million): Driven by GE Capital’s ranking of cars in Total Cost of Ownership terms across key auto types
• Car sourcing advice (€7.5 million): Driven by OEM and dealer concentration
• CO2 capping policy implementation (€7.0 million): Driven by insight into fuel consumption costs and the advice on tax issues relating to CO2 emission.

The company says that implementation of identified savings was particularly strong amongst its pan-European customer base where an estimated 47% of savings identified for customers were already implemented by the end of 2009.

'Using our experience and heritage in the fleet industry, we have created an opportunity to take $100 million cost out of our customers’ total fleet cost, freeing up capital to invest in their core business and use in their day to day operations,' said Peter Stroem, pan-European fleet commercial leader at GE Capital.

'For our pan-European customers almost 50% of those savings have already been implemented, which shows just how important this consultancy service is in today’s challenging economic environment. It should be possible for all companies to reduce fleet cost, but not lower their quality of service.'