Rental management 'is getting stronger'
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• Fleet management packages will take an increasing share of the commercial vehicle rental market in the future, predicts Keynote Publications in its latest report on vehicle leasing and hire.
Fleet management currently accounts for 24.5% of all rental packages organised in the UK, but Keynote predicts: "A development which will gain pace in the future is the establishment of specialist distribution companies, many developing from contract hire or leasing companies.
"These companies," says the report, "will not only provide the vehicles, but will manage the whole distribution system. Such management will include routeing and organisation, maintenance, warehousing and loading, the supply of replacement vehicles and provision of appropriately qualified drivers."
Keynote suggests that such a move will be natural to leasing and contract hire companies seeking to expand their share of a highly fragmented sector, in which even the largest leasing company has only around 4% of the market.
Last year 870,500 commercial vehicles in the UK were acquired under some form of leasing or hire agreement.
Keynote says that only 6.75% of commercial vehicles on Britain's roads are leased or hired, with the majority either bought outright or hire purchased. Contract hire, leasing and fleet management are more popular than rental among commercial vehicle operators, accounting for almost two-thirds of commercial vehicle hiring or leasing agreements.
Last year, members of the Equipment Leasing Association spent £579 million on commercial vehicles. Though this was slightly down on 1985, it still represents 41.6% by value of the UK vehicle hire and leasing market, which has grown by 81% since 1982.