Fleet provider Fraikin has been contracted by Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust to support its fleet of 19 vehicles on contract hire.
The hospital trust’s fleet includes vans, shuttle buses, and box-bodied trucks, and are used mostly for transporting staff and patients, hospital food, and medical supplies between its four hospitals.
Having previously managed its fleet in-house, Martin Adams, transport manager at Heart of England, claims that the switch to Fraikin-managed contract hire has reduced costs and improved efficiency.
Martin Adams, Heart of England, said: “We’ve been able to reduce the size of our fleet because we no longer need spare vehicles in case of unplanned downtime.
“Fraikin can either fix the vehicle at the roadside, or will provide us with a substitute vehicle within an hour so we can get on with the job – so we have the flexibility of a larger fleet without the costs.”
The vehicles in the fleet had Fraikin’s mySmartFleet telematics system installed, with Masternaut, to allow vehicle tracking.
Fraikin said it is in talks with the trust to consider introducing electric vehicles and charging points at the hospital sites.
