Fuel Card News Updates: Fleet programme saves police £7m

A money-saving regional fleet programme is on course to save Yorkshire and Humber police forces more than £7 million after a number of cost-cutting initiatives have been introduced. 

After four forces in the region were set a savings target of £10 million over five years, heads of transport at North Yorkshire Police, South Yorkshire Police, West Yorkshire Police and Humberside Police have joined forces to create a more collaborative way of working. This has helped to keep vehicle conversions, vehicle maintenance and training costs in-house. 

All of the region’s forces are now using West Yorkshire Police’s vehicle commissioning department in Bradford, which allows money that would previously have been given to outside agencies to be re-circulated within the forces. 

Additionally, there is an agreement in place to collaborate with other North-East region forces when purchasing vehicles. Fleet bosses have also negotiated contracts regionally for emergency warning equipment and livery for police vehicles, and have agreed to standardise all vehicles across the forces. 

Richard Flint, Head of Transport for North Yorkshire Police, said: “The regional link-up has been very positive so far and the changes we have made have resulted in some substantial cost savings.

“The way we are working now is much more viable for the future – we are sharing contracts, keeping costs in-house and redistributing the money within our forces.”

 “The regional heads of fleet meet regularly to identify further saving opportunities and monitor the progress of the initiatives we currently have in place.”

Other money-saving measures include the set-up of a regional technical group, regional training of staff and the consideration of introducing one computerised fleet system to streamline administration processes across all the regional forces.

In other motoring news, charities ActionAid UK and Friends of the Earth are warning the Government must drop its drive for biofuels or British motorists will face paying up to £2bn more at the pump per year by 2020. 

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