This summer sees Kwik Fit Fleet celebrating the 35th anniversary of opening its first fleet account. Following that first agreement in 1987, the Kwik Fit Fleet operation has grown year on year and now comprises a team of more than 200 people supporting over 4,000 fleet customers and 1.5 million drivers.
Since fitting its first fleet tyre, Kwik Fit Fleet has now replaced more than 20 million tyres and carried out over one million MOTs on fleet vehicles, with recent years also seeing a rapid growth in brake inspections and servicing agreements.
The tyre requirements of fleets have grown in complexity since 1987, in line with new technology and the much greater range of vehicles run under fleet contracts. Today, Kwik Fit’s most popular fleet tyres comprise around 250 sizes, with the list of additional options running to over 1,000 sizes. This is a far cry from the early days of fleet operations when just 50 tyre options covered 90% of fleet fitments.
It’s not only the number of tyre options that have increased. To meet its ever-changing customer needs over the last 35 years, Kwik Fit Fleet has constantly innovated and grown its offering. Innovations have included the launch of Kwik Fit Mobile and the subsequent expansion of this service with Mobile-7, as well as Kwik Fit’s tyre management and fleet web booking systems which ensure it offers the best driver support services, authorisation and management information solutions for partners.
In the last twelve months, Kwik Fit Fleet has been able to provide significant support to customers looking to improve the sustainability of their fleet operations. Kwik Fit is a key partner in Project TREE, a programme which brings together all parts of the tyre supply chain to ensure transparency and sustainability in natural rubber production. Blockchain technology is used to identify the raw latex produced and this is allocated to specific tyre ranges through mass balance credit methodology. The sale of these tyres supports the programme, helping protect both rainforest areas and rubber farmers’ livelihoods.
Kwik Fit Fleet director, Dan Joyce said: “As sustainability and ESG becomes an ever more critical factor in fleet operator and consumer purchase decisions, Project TREE provides a unique solution to support demand.”
Kwik Fit Fleet has also responded to recent short- and long-term changes in the fleet sector. With supply issues leading to a growing number of fleets running older vehicles out of necessity as well as by choice, SMR and MOT have been two significant areas of growth for the fleet business in recent years and Kwik Fit’s significant capacity is helping to support fleets with increased maintenance requirements. Over the last twelve months, Kwik Fit has carried out over one million MOTs. Almost 10% of these have been for fleet customers, with this number expected to grow as more fleets retain vehicles for longer.
The increasing use of ADAS in vehicles will require a larger maintenance support infrastructure than currently exists. Kwik Fit has begun to roll out its first tranche of ADAS calibration centres in order to provide customers with greater choice and convenience as they introduce increased vehicle autonomy into their fleets.
The shift to electric vehicles has long been part of Kwik Fit’s strategic planning and it has been responding with the largest EV technical training programme in the sector, ensuring that customers are fully supported across the UK. With EV’s bringing even greater complexity to the tyre market, Kwik Fit’s ability to access the largest stock in the UK is essential to support fleet drivers with both pre-booked and on-demand tyre requirements and every Kwik Fit centre is able to meet the demand for EV and hybrid tyre fitting. All the company’s MOT centres can complete MOTs on EVs and hybrids and Kwik Fit has a large and growing number of technicians qualified to complete service, maintenance and repair work with over half of its network offering full SMR coverage for EVs and hybrids.
Dan Joyce says: “As we reach this milestone, we would firstly like to thank our customers for their support across many years. Collaboration with our customers has been vital in influencing our progress and has allowed us to develop and mould our model to suit the needs of an industry at the forefront of technology and innovation.
“We believe that it’s not just the breadth and depth of our operation that has led to us maintaining long term relationships with customers, it is the fact that we never take their business for granted and are committed to delivering our service at a consistently high standard. The recent years have been very challenging but the amazing resilience of our teams on the front line have allowed us to navigate the pandemic period and keep our customers safe on the road.
“We have received many messages of thanks from customers who are aware it’s our 35th anniversary – we look forward to another 35 years with them.”
