All the key news in fleet…

(L-R) Graham Conway, head of Alphabet Partner and Gavin Davies, general manager, SME Sales & Distribution

Alphabet reviews broker relationships 

Alphabet has started reviewing all of its 40-plus broker partnership arrangements in a move to “maintain exclusivity” of the community.

The move comes nearly three years after the launch of its broker channel, Alphabet Partner, with Graham Conway, head of Alphabet Partner, commenting: “We have come a long way with our Partners so far, developing our processes, products and IT systems hand-in-hand with them and their SME customers to really differentiate ourselves in a competitive, highly-regulated market. Naturally though, any successful organisation or network must review its commercial relationships every few years or so as part of the usual business cycle.

“Our proposition then – as now – is focused on developing an exclusive network of well-established, customer-focused broker Partners with shared values, each providing a fair share of the business they write.”

Headline used car values at BCA saw a slight fall in May – the first since December.

Used car values see slight fall

Headline and fleet used car values saw slight falls at BCA in May but remained at near record levels.

The latest Pulse data finds average values in the fleet and lease sector stood at £10,446 in May, a month-on-month fall of £27 from April’s highpoint, but marking the third month running where they’ve stood at or near record levels. Retained value against original MRP fell slightly to 42.63%, while year-on-year values were up by £540 (5.4%), as both age and mileage continued to decline.

Meanwhile, at £8,861, the headline figure in May fell by £229 (2.5%) from the record value of £9,090 achieved in April, which BCA attributed to high volumes of stock continuing to reach the wholesale sector and a slight change in mix that saw greater numbers of dealer-PX cars reaching the market. Year-on-year, average values rose by exactly £600 (7.2%).

Dawes has spent the last four years at Audi UK, supporting the Audi network with a focus on fleet sales and business development.

Gavin Dawes to head up Audi fleet division at JCT600 

Gavin Dawes, previously business sales development manager at Audi, UK has joined Yorkshire-based dealer group as its new head of fleet for the Audi division.

Dawes will be based at the fleet hub in Chesterfield and will be responsible for managing JCT600’s Audi local business development team and also its fleet hub.  His key aims will be to develop and implement a sustainable long-term profitable strategy to help grow the Audi fleet division within JCT600.

The announcement follows JCT600’s appointment last month of a head of fleet for its Volkswagen division.

The latest annual customer feedback finds 86.4% of respondents rated Allstar as good or excellent for ‘keeping promises’.

Allstar continues to drive positive customer feedback

Latest results from Allstar Business Solutions’ annual customer satisfaction report shows improvements across the board.

The survey of over 1,000 customers including small businesses and large corporate clients found that overall nearly nine out of 10 rated Allstar as excellent or good while 83.1% said they would ‘chose Allstar again in the future’ as their fuel card provider.

The research also found that 86.2% rated Allstar as good or excellent for extensive network coverage and 85.5% highlighted card security as good/excellent.

Paul Baker, vice president of customer management at Allstar, said: “It is really pleasing to see that the actions and initiatives we have taken as a direct result of customer feedback have been recognised. We will of course continue to drive further service improvements and product innovations to ensure we remain first choice for fuel cards for businesses of all shapes and sizes moving forward.”