Cox Automotive, owner of Manheim, has awarded Fleet Alliance the deal to manage its 620-plus company car fleet, including making the shift to lower-emission models.

Alan Barratt, head of supply chain for Cox Automotive, said Fleet Alliance were head and shoulders above its competitors in the selection process

The business runs some 545 company cars on contract hire in the UK along with a further 50 owned cars and around 30 grey fleet cars. Fleet Alliance will manage them all, following a tender process which saw it come out on top by a significant margin over its rivals.

Following the deal, the Cox Automotive fleet policy has been completely refreshed with a premium brand car in every job grade category, an SUV in every category and a choice of at least one ULEV for every job grade, enabling Cox to start the process to migrate its currently all-diesel fleet across to a number of lower-emission alternatives.

Fleet Alliance has also introduced a new competitive tendering strategy for all new vehicles to be added to the Cox Automotive fleet, employing a panel of four preferred contract hire funders.  In addition, and with the funding panel’s full agreement, all company cars will now be de-fleeted through Manheim Auction centres.

The firm has also implemented its cloud-based fleet management and reporting suite, e-Fleet, which contains full details of all vehicles on the fleet, including the grey fleet vehicles, increasing control and reducing fleet administration costs, while also enabling more bespoke management information reports. Cox Automotive drivers are able to use the firm’s e-Fleet Mobile, which enables them to access key support services and electronically complete vehicle inspection reports.

“Although this is still the start of our strategic partnership, we feel that we will see more long-term benefits from the measures we are now introducing, with Fleet Alliance acting as a one-stop shop for all our fleet needs and providing us with a far more indepth level of MI reporting than we had seen previously,” said Alan Barratt, head of supply chain for Cox Automotive.