Ogilvie Fleet, the vehicle leasing and fleet management company, is gearing up for further growth this year as it celebrates 40 years of fleet business, with new fleet management offerings and increased use of data.

Gordon Stephen, managing director, Ogilvie Fleet

Ogilvie Fleet will continue to bring new fleet management offerings to market with new data-based solutions core to long-term industry success. Managing director, Gordon Stephen said: “We need to provide more and more data to both fleet decision-makers and car and van drivers to keep those populations fully informed, particularly about vehicle condition. Predictive tools will be key in that regard as will further use of technology to improve driver behaviour. Ogilvie Fleet’s innovation focus will be on delivering technology that improves vehicle and driver performance, which will ultimately drive operating cost efficiencies.”

Looking to the future, Stephen believes company cars will continue to be provided by employers to staff in both the job-need and perk sectors. He said: “Most employers want company cars because they deliver control of their fleet, which can be difficult when employees drive their own cars on business trips. However, there is currently leakage because the Government has yet to announce the shape of company car tax from April 2020.

“Mobility-as-a-Service is one of the fleet industry’s current buzz phrases but, I believe, company cars will continue to be around in 20 years’ time in some shape or another.

“Employees cannot do everything by Skype or email, they will still need to travel to face-to-face meetings and company cars will, in many cases, continue to be the optimum solution. Therefore, company cars, however they are funded, will still have a place in the market.”

Stirling-headquartered Ogilvie Fleet, which now has offices in Sheffield and Belfast and a home-based South of England sales team, operates an expanding fleet of more than 16,000 vehicles on lease and 2,500 under fleet management. The leased vehicles include company cars and vans and models funded via salary sacrifice and Personal Contract Hire schemes offered by customers to their employees.

Stephen said: “Our next milestone is to reach 20,000 vehicles on lease in the next two-three years and this is achievable based on our current contract win success rate and embedded growth as vehicles are delivered to new clients.”