The ‘living wage’ standard aims to raise people out of poverty and is different to the Government’s national minimum wage for over-25s which went up by 20p to £6.70 an hour on 1 October this year.

The ‘living wage’ is an hourly rate set independently and updated annually, based on the cost of living in the UK. The current rates are £8.25 per hour outside London and £9.40 inside.

Fleet Alliance managing director, Martin Brown, said: “The ‘living wage’ is a fundamental aspect of our CSR programme, Fleet Alliance Loves. Ensuring our people are paid appropriately for the hard work they do is a fundamental principle of our business – and we feel this should also be true of all businesses.

“We’ve been passionate about communicating the ‘living wage’ to our suppliers, and we’ve already seen several adopt the initiative – a perfect example of the wider sphere of influence of our 'Fleet Alliance Loves’ policy.”

Fleet Alliance, which manages around 18,000 vehicles nationally on behalf of corporate clients, has initiated a number of charity and fund-raising initiatives this year through its ‘Fleet Alliance Loves’ CSR programme, including donating a van free of charge for two years to the Glasgow North East Foodbank and raising over £230,000 for worthy causes since 2008.