Integral fleet manager Craig Watson said Venson’s experience in working with the emergency services was among the critical factors in awarding the contract.

He said: ‘Just like the emergency services our operational vehicles react to call-outs from customers. Therefore, it is essential that vehicle downtime is reduced to the absolute minimum. The knowledge that Venson has gathered from working with blue light fleets means that it can use that same experience to ensure our cars and vans are on-the-road as much as possible and not in workshops.’

Bristol-headquartered Integral has a national network of 15 centres and is Britain’s biggest and fastest growing national provider of comprehensive maintenance services for commercial and public sector buildings – including financial institutions, retail outlets, property specialists, corporate premises, government departments, education and health services, and social housing landlords.

The sole supply contract runs until the end of 2012 with a key programme to replace the firm’s spreadsheet-based reporting programme with online fleet management software.

Venson is managing out the current fleet and is already starting to supply new vehicles along with a range of additional services including short-term hire, accident management and driver licence checking.