The study which was carried out in Germany, UK, France and Belgium, involved some 3,700 new car transactions in which a variety of leasing companies were asked to submit monthly leasing rates for new fleet vehicles as part of the multi-bidding process.

Fleet Logistics employs its multi-bidding solution, an advanced form of competitive tendering in which competing leasing companies submit their best monthly rates for each new vehicle to be added to the fleet, to help achieve the best possible acquisition costs for its fleet customers.

The leasing companies taking part in the study fell into three categories – large international leasing companies, smaller national leasing companies and "captive" companies owned by vehicle manufacturers.

The study showed the huge range of prices that existed in the monthly leasing rates quoted by the leasing companies involved, and underlined the need for a process with the efficiency of multi-bidding in selecting the lowest price possible for each vehicle.

The largest range of prices was recorded in Germany, where the average spread of monthly prices received for the same vehicle was €65 per month, while the smallest spread was in the UK at €37. In France, the spread of quoted prices was €40 and in Belgium it was €48.

As a result of the wide range of prices that were received for each new vehicle involved in the multi-bid process, different leasing companies were selected to supply different vehicles because no one single type of leasing company was the most price competitive.

In Germany the greatest proportion of orders went to "captive" leasing companies owned by vehicle manufacturers who received 49% of orders, while 31% went to local national leasing companies and just 20% to international leasing companies.

This contrasted strongly with Belgium where international leasing companies secured the largest proportion of orders at 45%, with 30% of orders going to local national leasing companies and just 25% going to captives.

In the UK, like Germany, the largest proportion of new car orders were won by captive leasing companies at 42%, with 31% going to national companies and just 27% to international companies.

But in France, the profile was different again, with 45% of orders going to local national leasing companies, 36% going to international companies and just 25% going to manufacturers' captive leasing companies.

'These results show beyond doubt how vital multi-bidding is in sourcing and selecting the most price advantageous quotes  for new vehicles,' said Fleet Logistics CEO, Peter Soliman.

'As the study shows, prices vary from country to country and from type of leasing company to type of leasing company. No one single leasing company provides the best prices all the time. That is why a process such as multi-bidding achieves the best prices for fleet operators over single source supply every time,' he said.