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Britain’s most successful retailer has turned for the first time to the nation’s biggest van rental specialist for its latest batch of home delivery vans – once again, though, its vehicles wear the three-pointed star of Mercedes-Benz.
Tesco.com has awarded a first fleet management contract to Northgate plc, which operates over 120,000 vehicles throughout Europe.
The six-year deal is for 130 Long-bodied Sprinter 311CDI chassis cabs, which have begun entering service at 19 Tesco stores located between the M1/A1 corridor in the South and Midlands.
Tesco.com is the world’s most successful e-commerce operation, delivering over 280,000 grocery orders every week. It operates a fleet of 2,000 vans, some 1,700 of them Mercedes Sprinters.
The retailer is committed to maintaining a broad supplier base and Northgate becomes its third contract hire partner.
Its new vans are being supplied direct by Mercedes-Benz UK. They have GAH refrigeration units and Solomon insulated bodies, with separate compartments for ambient, chilled and frozen products.
Significantly, while the bodies will be used for the entire, six-year duration of the contract, the innovative deal put together by Northgate will see them removed and fitted to new Sprinter chassis every two years.
Tesco.com Fleet Manager Dino Papas says: “We’re very optimistic about this new arrangement, which means participating stores will get new vehicles every two years rather than every five, as has previously been the case.
“The Sprinter is a premium vehicle with excellent reliability and highly competitive whole life costs, as well as a strong brand image, and we’re clearly benefiting from the fact that Northgate is the single biggest customer for Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicles in the UK.”
He continues: “We’re starting quietly, on a relatively small scale, but this new partnership has got over to a very good start. I’m confident that Northgate are going to make a very valuable contribution to our future success.”
Nick Skillman, Business Development Director for Northgate plc, adds: “We’ve been looking for new areas into which we can expand our operations. This prestigious contract represents our most significant breakthrough to date.
“Tesco is the UK’s premier retailer and we’re very proud to be working with them. We now look forward to building on our new partnership over the months and years to come.
“Our innovative way of sourcing vehicles and managing them through a more aggressive life cycle means that Tesco can benefit through greater fleet uptime, improved fuel efficiency and reduced emissions. This allows Tesco to provide better service levels for shoppers and reduce its overall operating costs while at the same time helping the environment.”
Northgate is the leading provider of light commercial vehicles for rental in both the UK and Spain. Its core business in the UK and Ireland comprises 20 hire companies operating from 87 sites, with a combined fleet size of 65,300 vehicles.
This year alone Northgate will take delivery of 5,000 Sprinters, the largest single order that Mercedes-Benz has ever won in Europe. |
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