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.
In mid-July Colewood Automotive named Chris Higgins as its new finance director. Having been appointed to the role in June, Higgins will now work with the board to “manage and control the companies within the group to ensure financial and regulatory requirements are fulfilled”. Chris Higgins’ career spans over 20 years and includes 12 years as finance director for Kwik-Fit Fleet.
Communication and clarity with company car and van owners and drivers will be more critical than ever with this month’s introduction of MoT test changes with the new rules potentially contradicting the established Road Traffic Act, according to Kwik Fit, the UK’s largest automotive repair company.
Ogilvie Fleet has teamed up with Kwik Fit to switch its customer Complete Price Eyewear to Michelin CrossClimate tyres. Before moving 93 Honda Civic and Volvo V40 and V60 cars in the mobile optician’s fleet to CrossClimate tyres, Ogilvie Fleet put two sets to the test for six months on vehicles coping with the worst of Britain’s weather.
Jim Hannah, operations director at Ogilvie Fleet, said: “CrossClimate tyres are a fantastic choice for the UK fleet market, as they can handle anything the country’s notoriously unpredictable weather can throw at us. The tyres [eliminate] the need to switch from summer to winter fitments, and cuts both the cost of employing a ‘tyre hotel’ and the associated fitting fees – which is particularly advantageous for companies with vehicles based all over the country…”
Kwik-Fit Fleet has launched a new web-based ‘intelligent’ tyre management authorisation and reporting system, which is being rolled out to Britain’s biggest fleet operators. About 50 companies managing more 1.3 million vehicles, including Britain’s largest fleet, Motability Operations which runs around 450,000 vehicles, and the country’s largest contract hire business, Lex which has a fleet of almost 270,000 vehicles, will benefit from the technology.
For the past decade Kwik-Fit Fleet’s tyre management programme has been utilised by some of Britain’s biggest outright purchase fleets and leasing companies to control their tyre maintenance spend. Details of all transactions are logged and information on tread depths of tyres removed, brands and size of tyres fitted, mileage of vehicle at time of replacement and the reason for tyre replacement are all captured by Kwik Fit on behalf of customers.
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