Met appoints VT Emergency Services for new fleet management

The Metropolitan Police Service has appointed VT Emergency Services to maintain its fleet of 3,600 vehicles at two purpose-built sites in London’s Park Royal and Camberwell. The five-acre Park Royal facility was officially opened by the Met’s Commissioner Sir Ian Blair in December.

The two new sites represent a £10m investment by the VT group and are providing a 24-hour service, seven days a week, with full mobile vehicle support. They went live in April of last year.

Speaking at the opening, Sir Ian Blair said it is “impossible to describe how important the issue of vehicle repair and maintenance is” and paralleled it as being “as vital as officer training”.

He added that the transfer to VT was seamless and the partnership has ensured that “every component in the vehicle maintenance chain is linked”.

The partnership is built on a ten-year agreement with life-time revenues expected of around £250m. The Park Royal site features 25 workbays and 15 bodyshop bays, including tyre replacement equipment and VOSA approved MOT capabilities.

Describing the achievements since the go-live date, Austin Lewis, director and general manager of VT outlined how the new contract includes raised performance standards, considerable VOR (vehicle off road) improvement targets and a consultation process which included 165 colleagues leading to new and improved working practices within the purpose built facility.

He said: “From purpose-built facilities, our specialist workforce will optimise work allocation, using state of the art information technology and estimating systems. Strategically positioned sites will reduce travel time for vehicles and other equipment requiring curative or preventative repair.

“Tailored incident management software will support detailed trend analysis to identify future efficiency improvements and to pin-point resource requirements. This, coupled with a bespoke fleet management system, will enable improved control of vehicles and generation of information, thereby more accurately predicting operational demands resulting in greater vehicle availability.”

Paul Leicester, chief executive, VT, said the partnership has been a success since the go-live date. “It is something we want to continue doing. It is working well, we are being measured by our performance and our investment in people and facilities ensures our customer supplier needs are met.”

Activity levels at Park Royal reveal the scale of activity, with 150 cars serviced each week, 350 police station defects attended per week, 35 weekly breakdowns attended and around 2,325 calls handled each week

The success is built on a joined up approach, a production line operation of vehicle maintenance with a call handling centre on site.

Paul Wilkins, contract director for the partnership said: “You have to have a production line mentality to drive vehicles through. These vehicles come from lots of other supplies so our joined up approach works from the vehicle coming from the manufacturer to a company that equips it for service.

“Through the vehicle’s life we have to combine partnerships with the suppliers, BMW, ford and Vauxhall, and we now have franchised standards to keep the police vehicles on the road; we have warranty status.

Simon Purchon, business development manager, VT, said: “Having the control centre on site is key to the performance of the contract. One of VT’s key beliefs in running the operation is that the people that plan and talk to the customer need to feel and understand the effect of what they do by being able to see the effect on the ground.”

Mr Wilkins added that another important factor is the quality of the repairs being done. “We are ensuring that when the vehicles leave the facility they are fit for purpose.”

The drive for the partnership follows the Met’s strategic decision to outsource vehicle maintenance roughly seven years ago. The previous company leased the facilities owned by the Met in Northolt and Eus