35 years: Kwik Fit reaches fleet milestone

This summer sees Kwik Fit Fleet celebrating the 35th anniversary of opening its first fleet account. Following that first agreement in 1987, the Kwik Fit Fleet operation has grown year on year and now comprises a team of more than 200 people supporting over 4,000 fleet customers and 1.5 million drivers.

Since fitting its first fleet tyre, Kwik Fit Fleet has now replaced more than 20 million tyres and carried out over one million MOTs on fleet vehicles, with recent years also seeing rapid growth in brake inspections and servicing agreements.

Looking back over the past three and a half decades, Kwik Fit observes that fleet tyre requirements have grown in complexity since 1987, in line with new technology and the far wider range of vehicles running under fleet contracts. Today, Kwik Fit’s most popular fleet tyres comprise around 250 sizes, with the list of additional options running to over 1,000 sizes. This is a far cry from the early days of fleet operations when just 50 tyre options covered 90 per cent of fleet fitments.

It’s not only the number of tyre options that has increased. Kwik Fit has grown its offering to meet evolving customer needs over the last 35 years. Innovations include the launch of Kwik Fit Mobile and the subsequent expansion of this service with Mobile-7, as well as Kwik Fit’s tyre management and fleet web booking systems.

Fleet services have grown with the launch of Kwik Fit Mobile & its subsequent expansion with Mobile-7 (Photo: Kwik Fit)

Project TREE supporting sustainability demand

In the last twelve months, Kwik Fit Fleet has also been able to accommodate customers looking to improve the sustainability of their fleet operations. Kwik Fit is a key partner in Project TREE, a programme which brings together all parts of the tyre supply chain to ensure transparency and sustainability in natural rubber production. Blockchain technology is used to identify the raw latex produced and this is allocated to specific tyre ranges through mass balance credit methodology. The sale of these tyres supports the programme, helping protect both rainforest areas and rubber farmers’ livelihoods.

“As sustainability and ESG becomes an ever more critical factor in fleet operator and consumer purchase decisions, Project TREE provides a unique solution to support demand,” says Dan Joyce, Kwik Fit Fleet director.

Responding to fleet changes

Kwik Fit Fleet has also responded to recent short- and long-term changes in the fleet sector. With supply issues leading to a growing number of fleets running older vehicles out of necessity as well as by choice, SMR and MoT have been two significant areas of growth for the company’s fleet business in recent years. Noting that almost ten per cent of the more than one million MoTs it carried out in the last 12 months were for fleet customers, Kwik Fit states that its “significant capacity is helping to support fleets with increased maintenance requirements.” It expects the number of fleet MoTs to grow as more fleets retain vehicles for longer.

The increasing use of ADAS in vehicles will require a larger maintenance support infrastructure than currently exists. Kwik Fit has begun to roll out its first tranche of ADAS calibration centres in order to provide customers with greater choice and convenience as they introduce increased vehicle autonomy into their fleets.

The shift to electric vehicles has long been part of Kwik Fit’s strategic planning. The company shares that it has been responding with the “largest EV technical training programme in the sector.” And with EVs bringing even greater complexity to the tyre market, Kwik Fit is confident that its ability to access the largest stock in the UK will aid fleet requirements. Every Kwik Fit centre is able to meet the demand for EV and hybrid tyre fitting and all MoT centres can complete MoTs on EVs and hybrids. Furthermore, over half of the Kwik Fit network offers full SMR coverage for EVs and hybrids.

Never take business for granted

Dan Joyce says: “As we reach this milestone, we would firstly like to thank our customers for their support across many years. Collaboration with our customers has been vital in influencing our progress and has allowed us to develop and mould our model to suit the needs of an industry at the forefront of technology and innovation.

“We believe that it’s not just the breadth and depth of our operation that has led to us maintaining long-term relationships with customers, it is the fact that we never take their business for granted and are committed to delivering our service at a consistently high standard. The recent years have been very challenging but the amazing resilience of our teams on the front line have allowed us to navigate the pandemic period and keep our customers safe on the road.

“We have received many messages of thanks from customers who are aware it’s our 35th anniversary – we look forward to another 35 years with them.”