The weekly round up of European and UK fleet news. This week a first for a Russian fleet, the top five dominant European fleet sales and ALD have a UK remarketer. By Grant Collinson and Mike Cobb
Fleet up 8% in top European markets in January
New fleet market registrations increased 8% year-on-year in January for the EU-5 markets of Germany, UK, France Italy and Spain, according to German automotive research firm Dataforce.
A 4.5% drop in the Spanish market for the month was not enough to counteract the 2% growth in Germany and strong growth of 9.5% in France, 13.5% in the UK and 14.6% in Italy.
Volkswagen continued to dominate the fleet market across the EU-5 and increased its fleet registrations by 3.7%. However, Ford reported the most significant growth in January to move from fourth to second place in the ranking of manufacturers by fleet registrations while VW-owned Czech brand koda also performed well in January with 37% year-on-year growth across all five markets helping it to top-10 status.
The SUV segment continued the growth seen in 2013 and accounted for 17.1% of the fleet market in the five markets, reaching second place behind compact cars for the first time.
Cassiopae sets up Russian fleet first
Russian fleet leasing firm Intermark Auto has begun using Cassiopae’s front office asset finance software and is due to implement the software firm’s back office programme later in the year.
The implementation is the first fully integrated fleet management and front-office leasing platform in Russia, according to Cassiopae.
Alun Booth, chief executive of Cassiopae’s UK operations, said: "We are delighted that IAL has selected Cassiopae as its partner for both its front office and back office solutions as this clearly demonstrates our desire and ability to successfully implement in Russia and further reinforces Cassiopae as a global software solution."
BCA appointed to de-fleet for ALD
British Car Auctions (BCA) has been appointed by ALD Automotive as its preferred supplier for remarketing services after a competitive tender.
With around 97,000 vehicles in its fleet, ALD is the fourth largest fleet leasing provider in the UK.
The deal, which became effective on 1 February, will see BCA collect, inspect and refurbish vehicles leaving ALD’s fleet. ALD will in turn use the remarketer’s ‘Control Monitor’ inventory management system.
Citroën appoints new head of commercial vehicles
Citroën has appointed Jeremy Smith as head of its UK Commercial Vehicles & Business Sector Operations.
Taking over from Scott Michael, who has moved to Motability Operations, Jeremy was previously head of sales programmes for Citroën in the UK.
He will head an existing team of four plus an unannounced appointee who will take up the new position of commercial vehicle & business programmes manager.
