Public Sector

Managed fleet contract hire, built around the round that cannot be missed

A municipal fleet is not judged on its rate. It is judged on whether the bins were emptied. When a collection vehicle fails at six in the morning, the authority does not need a maintenance report, it needs a vehicle on the round before the crew loses the day.

We provide end to end contract hire, service, maintenance and relief vehicles for council fleets, specified around service continuity rather than around the fleet list.

What a fully managed contract covers

Supply, replacement and specification

Vehicles specified to the role and the depot rather than to a catalogue: refuse and food waste collection, sweepers, tippers and cage tippers, panel vans and light commercials, grounds maintenance and specialist plant. Replacement cycles planned against duty cycle and condition rather than by age alone, so a vehicle leaves the fleet before it becomes an availability problem.

Planned maintenance and compliance

Safety inspections at the intervals the fleet requires, scheduled around the operational calendar so maintenance does not collide with collection days. MOT and annual testing planned and presented, compliance inspections recorded, and defects closed out with documented rectification rather than logged and left. The record trail is maintained to the standard an operator licence review would expect, and it belongs to the authority.

Reactive repairs, breakdown and tyres

A single reporting route for breakdowns, defects and damage, with response commitments in the contract rather than in an email. Roadside attendance and recovery arranged to get the vehicle moving or removed. Tyre management including end of life replacement handled as part of the service, since tyres are both a compliance risk and one of the most common causes of avoidable downtime.

Relief vehicles that keep the service running

Relief provision specified as availability, not as a promise: how quickly a replacement is on site, matched to body specification so a crew can work it without familiarisation, and available for the categories where a failure stops a public service the same day. Refuse and environmental vehicles are the priority because they are the ones the public notices within hours.

Licensing, telematics and reporting

Road fund licence administration handled rather than tracked. Telematics fitted and configured to report what an authority acts on: utilisation, downtime by vehicle and cause, driver behaviour where it affects safety, and consumption feeding the carbon reporting the council already has to produce. Fleet reporting delivered on the contract cycle, with exceptions leading rather than buried in an appendix.

Whole life cost, not just the rate

The rate is one line of the cost. Downtime and the cost of covering it, fuel or energy, tyres, damage recharges and end of contract condition charges are the rest, and they are where a cheap contract becomes an expensive one. We would rather be transparent about the full picture at tender stage than win on a rate and recover it through variations, because an authority that discovers the difference in year two is an authority that goes back to market in year three.

Decarbonisation as a schedule, not an aspiration

Which categories can move to electric or alternative fuel during the term, which cannot yet given payload, range and duty cycle, and what depot charging would be required and when. Consumption and emissions reported per vehicle throughout so progress is evidenced rather than asserted. On a mixed municipal fleet an honest phased plan is worth more than a uniform promise that cannot survive a winter collection round.

Mobilisation, transition and exit

Mobilisation covers everything that has to be true on day one: specifications confirmed by role and depot, inspection schedules loaded, telematics fitted and reporting configured, breakdown routes tested, relief arrangements confirmed, and named contacts with escalation on both sides. Where TUPE applies it is addressed early, because it affects cost, pensions and the knowledge the depot depends on. Exit is designed at the same time as entry, since the end of a fleet contract is where disputes concentrate.

Social value with a number attached

Where an authority evaluates social value through a TOMs framework, commitments should be selected against the measures that matter locally and carried into delivery with the same reporting discipline as the operational KPIs. A social value commitment that is not reported during the contract was a tender document, not a commitment.

How a managed fleet contract runs

A walkthrough of how we would run a contract of this type. It describes method, not a completed contract.

Mobilisation. Fleet list confirmed by role, depot and duty cycle. Maintenance intervals and inspection schedules agreed and loaded. Telematics fitted and reporting configured with the data protection position settled. Breakdown, recovery and relief routes tested rather than documented. TUPE position resolved. Named contacts and escalation agreed on both sides.

Steady state. Planned maintenance scheduled around the operational calendar. Defects reported through one route and closed out with evidence. Relief vehicles deployed against the availability commitment. Compliance records maintained continuously rather than assembled before an audit.

Reporting and review. Availability, downtime by cause, compliance status, cost against budget and emissions reported on the contract cycle. Reviews open with exceptions and with the vehicles that are repeatedly failing, because that is where the money is.

Transition and exit. Replacement cycles planned ahead of failure. At exit, maintenance records handed to the authority in full, vehicles returned against a condition standard agreed at the start, and no surprise recharges.

Where this sits alongside short term hire

Contract hire and vehicle hire solve different problems. A core fleet running a scheduled public service every week belongs on contract hire, where maintenance, compliance and replacement are bundled and the rate is predictable. Fluctuating, seasonal or project demand belongs on managed vehicle hire, where the authority pays for capacity only while it needs it. Most authorities need both, and the two should be specified deliberately rather than one used to cover the gaps in the other.

Why an implementation business is credible here

This is the largest and most demanding of the public sector services we offer, and we would rather set out plainly what we bring and what we contract for. The vehicles and the workshop capability come through our contracted fleet partner network. The contract, the accountability, the reporting and the single point of contact remain with us.

What we bring is an operating discipline built in an industry where a missed delivery window is a failed job:

• Availability as the measure, because in retail implementation a vehicle or a team that is not there on the day is the whole failure, not part of it.
• Coordinating subcontracted capacity under a single accountable contract, rather than passing the coordination back to the client.
• Compliance evidence maintained continuously rather than assembled when someone asks for it.
• Exception reporting that leads, so a council hears about a developing problem while it can still be fixed.
• Mobilisation discipline, from a business that starts national programmes to fixed dates and treats day one readiness as the deliverable.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between contract hire and vehicle hire?

Vehicle hire covers a defined period, often weeks or months, and the authority takes the vehicle largely as it comes. Contract hire is a multi year arrangement where the vehicle is specified for the role, and maintenance, compliance, testing, licensing and replacement are bundled into a single rate for the term. The practical difference is what the authority stops doing: under contract hire the workshop scheduling, MOT presentation, tyre policy and road fund licence administration move to the supplier. Hire suits demand that fluctuates; contract hire suits a core fleet that runs a scheduled service every week of the year.

Why do relief vehicles matter so much on a municipal fleet?

Because a refuse round cannot be postponed. When a collection vehicle fails, the choice is a relief vehicle within hours or a missed round, and a missed round becomes several thousand residents contacting the council, a recovery collection at overtime rates, and a performance figure that is visible to members and the public. Relief provision should therefore be specified as availability rather than as a vehicle: how quickly a like for like replacement is on site, whether it is body specification matched, and whether the authority's own crews can operate it without additional familiarisation.

How does a managed fleet contract protect the operator licence?

The operator licence stays with the authority and cannot be contracted away, so the supplier's job is to keep the evidence behind it intact. That means safety inspections at the correct intervals, inspection records complete and retrievable, MOT and annual test presentation planned rather than reactive, defect reporting closed out with a documented rectification, and a clear audit trail if the DVSA asks. A council evaluating a managed fleet bid should ask specifically how inspection records are shared, who holds them at the end of the contract, and what happens to the record trail on exit.

What should fleet telematics actually deliver on a council contract?

Something the authority acts on, not a dashboard nobody opens. The valuable outputs are utilisation, so vehicles that are not earning their place are visible, downtime by vehicle and by cause, driver behaviour where it affects safety and fuel, and fuel or energy consumption feeding the carbon reporting the authority already has to produce. Telematics data is also personal data about identifiable drivers, so the data protection position, retention period and access rules need settling at mobilisation rather than after the first request from a trade union or an individual driver.

How is whole life cost different from the hire rate?

The rate is what appears on the invoice. Whole life cost is what the fleet actually costs the authority over the term, including downtime and the cost of covering it, fuel or energy, tyres, damage recharges, end of contract condition charges, and the cost of the authority's own staff time spent administering the arrangement. A lower rate with poor availability is routinely more expensive than a higher rate with strong availability, because a vehicle off road on a collection round costs agency crew and a recovery collection. Evaluating on rate alone tends to select the bid that has moved cost rather than removed it.

How can a fleet contract support a council's decarbonisation target?

By making the transition a scheduled part of the contract rather than an aspiration in the tender. That means agreeing which categories can move to electric or alternative fuel during the term and which cannot yet, being honest about payload, range and duty cycle limits on heavier municipal vehicles, and identifying what depot charging infrastructure would be needed and when. It also means reporting consumption and emissions per vehicle throughout, so the authority can evidence progress. A supplier promising a uniform transition across a mixed municipal fleet is describing an ambition, not a plan.

What happens to fleet staff under TUPE when a contract changes hands?

Where an incoming supplier takes on an activity previously carried out by the authority or an incumbent, TUPE may apply and staff may transfer on their existing terms. It is a question to settle early rather than at mobilisation, because it affects cost, the pension position and the mobilisation plan. Bidders should expect the authority to provide employee liability information, and should price on that basis rather than assume. For the authority, the practical risk of getting this wrong is not legal exposure alone, it is losing depot knowledge that the service depends on.

What should mobilisation of a fleet contract cover?

Everything that has to be true on day one, agreed before day one. Vehicle specifications confirmed by role and depot, maintenance intervals and inspection schedules loaded, telematics fitted and reporting configured, breakdown and recovery routes tested rather than documented, relief vehicle arrangements confirmed, data protection and record keeping agreed, and named contacts with escalation on both sides. Exit should be designed at the same time: who holds the maintenance records, how vehicles are handed back, and what condition standard applies, because the end of a fleet contract is where disputes concentrate.