Prohire Announce Further Significant Spot Rental Fleet Investment

 

One of the UK’s fastest growing commercial vehicle hire and fleet management specialists, Prohire Plc, has announced an investment approaching £1 million in its ‘spot rental’ fleet.

This is the second significant investment Midlands based Prohire has made in its ‘spot rental’ fleet in a matter of months and follows February’s news that the company had spent in excess of £2.5 million on new vehicles.

As part of this most recent investment Prohire has placed orders for around 35 vehicles, including: 7.5t Iveco Eurocargo trucks; 18t and 26t DAF Curtainsiders; Mercedes Axor tractor units; and 3.5t Mercedes Sprinter vans with refrigerated bodies.

“Spot rental has become an increasingly significant part of our business,” says Dan Stevenson, Prohire’s Rentals Manager.

Dan believes that the growing demand for ‘spot rental’ vehicles reflects the fact that some companies’ are treating news of the upturn in economic conditions with a degree of caution.

He comments: “Business is improving and companies are beginning to feel that they are coming out of recession, but, in a lot of cases – particularly among third party logistics services companies – there is a reluctance to overstretch by buying, for example, a new £70,000.00 tractor unit to service a new contract. So rental options are particularly attractive.”

Prohire now has close to 300 vehicles ranging from car derived vans to 44-tonne tractor units in its ‘spot rental’ fleet and vehicles can be rented for any amount of time – from one day to seven years!

New Appointment to Engineering Team

Commercial vehicle contract hire and fleet management specialist, Prohire Plc, has announced the appointment of Duncan Turk as the company’s new National Fleet Engineer.

Duncan has spent over two decades within the commercial vehicle sector during which time he has held senior positions with TNT Logistics, Hitachi Capital and Amey – the highway infrastructure specialists – among others. Immediately prior to joining Prohire he had been based in Kenya overseeing G4S Security Services 750 strong vehicle fleet in the region.

While he will be located at Prohire’s Staffordshire headquarters, most of Duncan’s time will be spent on the road – meeting with Prohire’s suppliers and clients.

The position of National Fleet Engineer is a new role within Prohire and has been created to enable the company to improve still further the quality of service that it offers to its rapidly expanding customer base.

“I am very much looking forward to getting to know Prohire’s service and vehicle maintenance partners and clients around the country and discussing the ways we can work together to ensure that Prohire continues to offer market-leading levels of value and after-sales support,” Duncan Turk said.

In his leisure time, Duncan enjoys motorcycling – particularly off-road – with his 17-year old son.

Prohire is one of the UK’s fastest growing commercial vehicle hire specialists. In the last four years the company’s fleet of trucks and vans has more than doubled in size and now stands at over 3,000 vehicles.

The introduction of the Euro 6 engine emissions standards will have a significant impact on the way commercial vehicles are acquired in the coming years. That is the view of Andrew Morley, Sales Director of Prohire Plc, one of the UK’s fastest growing commercial vehicle hire and fleet management specialists.

Euro 6 became mandatory for all new truck registrations from 31st December 2013. The standard is the latest stage in the legislative drive to reduce harmful vehicle emissions that started in 1993 with the introduction of Euro 1 and since that time emissions have been reduced by up to 97%.

Of course, in developing products that meet the emissions standards demanded by Euro 6, engine manufacturers have incurred hefty R&D costs.

As is the way of the world, the vehicle manufacturers have had little option but to review their own pricing structures to recoup their investment costs.

As a result, commercial vehicle prices – from the lower end of commercial vehicles to top-end tractor units - have increased by up to 16 per cent since the turn of the year.

To beat the increases, many fleet operators were tempted to bring forward new vehicle orders prior to the end of 2013. Others, meanwhile, have delayed fleet replacements altogether.”

Critics of Euro 6 contend that the benefits to the environment that it will bring are minimal while the increase in vehicle costs that are the result of its introduction will be damaging to the stability of the road transport sector at a time when the economic recovery is showing signs of gathering pace.

There is also a belief that, thanks to Euro 6, vehicle payloads will be compromised and additional fuel costs incurred.

At Prohire it is our view that lower gross vehicle weight vehicles that operate in urban areas will gain little from the introduction of Euro 6: their operating costs will increase and any environmental benefits will be negligible.  Meanwhile, for some tractor units, there is an argument that suggests that the increase in up-front capital costs can be off-set by fuel savings over time.

What is undeniable however is that across the board, fleet operators can minimize their exposure to the upsurge in commercial vehicle capital costs that Euro 6 has precipitated by moving away from purchasing vehicles outright and embracing some form of long term hire agreement when the time comes to add new vehicles to their fleets.

There are several reasons why, with the advent of Euro 6, long term hire makes sound commercial sense that; these being that the increased capital cost isn’t born by the operator in one hit and as the funding is ‘off balance sheet’ then this frees the operator up to use their working capital in other areas of the business.

Whatever the benefits, or lack of benefits, Euro 6 is now a reality.

Contract Hire and Fleet Management companies such as Prohire, will be able to guide you through the acquisition methods open to you to ensure that you make the right choice for your business.