The carmaker was crowned as the Manufacturer of the Year 2016 at this year’s Fleet World Honours, whilst also taking the titles of Premium Lower Medium for the 1 Series, Compact Executive for the 3 Series and Premium Crossover with the X1.

Announcing the awards wins, the Fleet World judges credited the carmaker for new innovations including groundbreaking new leasing programmes and enhanced specification.

Recent launches include Service Alerts, whereby all cars monitor themselves to ensure they are in fit condition on the roads. The car automatically reports back to BMW HQ in Munich when it has reached a service interval or warning lights appear, and that information is then passed to the owner. This level of data will have a significant impact on SMR costs.

The system is being used by leasing company Alphabet, as part of its award-winning Teleservice programme, ensuring that its BMW cars are serviced regularly, are running with tyres at the correct pressure, have brakes in the right condition, and all other systems are running at the levels set by the manufacturer.

There have also been a number of new initiatives to improve customer service still further in the past year. This includes a focus on aftersales, with a specialist aftersales manager appointed to solely take care of Corporate Aftersales, improving booking time responses. All 1Link booking requests will now be responded to by BMW Service Centres within 20 minutes, and booking requests for service or maintenance are guaranteed an appointment within seven days. Any associated costs will be explained at point of booking and displayed on 1Link.

Complimentary collection and delivery within 15-mile radius is provided for service or maintenance bookings.

And BMW has also introduced an enhanced level of specification on key models in the past year to ensure fleets get excellent value for money.

New ED Plus and ED Sport models have been specified to offer a high level of standard specification for fleet customers, ensuring great value for money. Powered by either a 116hp 1.5-litre (1 Series) or modified 2.0-litre turbodiesel engine developing maximum power of 163hp (3 Series), these models include Business Navigation, leather upholstery, upgraded wheels and heated seats as standard.

And all cars in the BMW range now come with Satellite Navigation as standard, giving fleets the technology their drivers want, and improving residual values too. It also helps with in-life running costs: during its operation BMW Satellite Navigation also gives drivers the option of the ECO PRO function, which means the car can calculate the most economical route to the destination.

To find out more about BMW's award-winning products and services, click here.