Archived News

Northgate Vehicle Hire, the UK's leading commercial vehicle hire company has once again teamed up with Brake, the national road safety charity, to raise the importance of safe and economical driving.

On the UK roads, eight people are killed every day and over seventy are seriously injured. Road crashes that involve drivers at work are estimated at 200 deaths or serious injuries a week. These crashes involve drivers using cars, vans and trucks.

With the aim of reducing the number of crashes, Northgate is distributing a free Driver Safety Guide to help drivers be safer on the roads.

The guide provides guidance and legislative information on road safety whilst also offering drivers and companies an optional self assessment. The guide will include issues such as drink and drug driving, driver tiredness, vehicle maintenance, speeding, reversing and driving whilst using a mobile phone.

Colin Gilstin Health & Safety Manager at Northgate Vehicle Hire said, "As a vehicle hire company, road safety is very important to us. Helping drivers to be more aware about the problems in preparation for and whilst driving, will hopefully decrease the number of crashes and deaths on our roads."

Katie Shephard, spokesperson for Brake, says: "Shockingly, one in three crashes involves a vehicle being driven for work. Through the Driver Safety Guide, Northgate is raising awareness about vital issues that will help keep drivers safe and Brake applauds Northgate's ongoing commitment to road safety."

Approximately 18% of all deaths on the road involved drivers who were over the legal alcohol limit.

For more information, download the free guide from http://www.northgatevehiclehire.co.uk/about.html

Northgate Vehicle Hire, the UK's leading commercial vehicle hire company, has once again been recognised for its exceptional health and safety standards gaining another prestigious international safety award.

The company was recently awarded an Occupational Health & Safety Gold Award from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents and has now gained the International Safety Award from the British Safety Council. This is the second consecutive year that Northgate Vehicle Hire has won both awards.

The company operates a fleet of over 60,000 vehicles from more than 60 locations throughout the UK and Ireland. Northgate offer commercial vehicles for hire, fleet management, vehicle monitoring and other associated services.

Julie Nerney, British Safety Council chief executive said, "I congratulate Northgate Vehicle Hire for their award, which shows a clear commitment to health and safety best practice and is helping to make our vision of a healthy and safe working environment a reality."

Colin Gilstin, the Group's Safety & Environment Manager commented: "The health and well-being of our employees is a primary focus for Northgate Vehicle Hire. We feel that winning this prestigious award for a second successive year confirms Northgate's commitment to achieving and promoting safety within our work places."

Northgate's aim is to lead the field where safety is concerned. Dedication to meeting this aim also assists its customers to meet their own duty of care obligations within their businesses'.

Northgate has now trained more than 700 of its employees to the British Safety Council Level 1 standard in Health and Safety at Work. This year the company's senior managers are undertaking the 3 day level 2 training course in Supervising Staff Safely. Northgate Health & Safety team are accredited BSC course providers and carry out the training courses in-house. This ensures consistent standard levels whilst improving knowledge and culture within the company.

The British Safety Council leads the way in promoting health, safety and environmental best practice. This international Award recognises and acknowledges that organisations and their employees have achieved health, safety and environmental excellence.

ABOUT NORTHGATE

Northgate Vehicle Hire is the UK and Ireland operating subsidiary of Northgate plc, which is listed on the FTSE 250 and is Europe's leading commercial vehicle hire business.

Northgate pioneered the development of Norflex, which provides customers with the flexibility to hire vehicles on a longer term basis without the constraints of a fixed period contract or having any of the risks associated with vehicle ownership. Norflex allows customers (large and small) to acquire, return or change vehicles without notice or penalty. Supporting this proposition, Northgate provides customers with:

• Choice and availability, operating a hire fleet of more than 60,000 vehicles in the UK and Ireland
• Modern and up to date fleet – the majority of vehicles are less than 3 years old
• Northgate it buys c.20,000 vehicles each year
• UK-wide support with 60 branches from Aberdeen to Plymouth including sites in Belfast and Dublin
• A national network of purpose-built workshops to ensure that vehicles are serviced, maintained and repaired to manufacturers' warranty and safety standards by a team of fully licenced IRTEC (Institute of Road Transport Engineers) technicians
• High service standards by conforming to the BVRLA fair wear and tear guidelines.
• In both 2009 and 2010, Northgate won gold awards from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) and the British Safety Council International Safety Award.

For more information on the Northgate Vehicle Hire please visit our website - www.northgatevehiclehire.co.uk

For further information contact:

Ross Clarkson, Marketing Director on 01325 467 558 or email ross.clarkson@northgateplc.com

A fleet of 50 cars is being provided by Northgate Vehicle Hire to Securitas Mobile, a division of one of the world's largest security organisations.

The new three-year agreement for the renewal of the whole Securitas Mobile fleet sees the supply of 50 Peugeot 207 cars and extends the two companies existing seven-year business partnership to 2013.

While the two organisations have agreed a three-year fleet deal, vehicles will be replaced on a two-year cycle to ensure that Securitas Mobile continues to operate the latest most environmentally-friendly models.

Securitas Mobile provide a range of services including keyholding and alarm response - both commercial and domestic - mobile patrols, a locks and unlocks service for commercial premises and lone worker protection/escort services.

Andy Natt, managing director of Securitas Mobile, said: "In our business we need to be available 24:7/365 to meet the needs of our clients. Northgate not only provides the right kinds of vehicles which are both environmentally and operationally efficient, they also keep us on the road, something which is critical to our business, particularly out of hours."

Darlington-based Northgate Vehicle Hire is the UK's leading provider of vehicle hire for businesses and operates a fleet of more than 60,000 cars and vans.

Sales director Gareth Jones said: "We are proud to be a partner to Securitas and look forward to working with them as they reinforce and expand their position as the market leader."

Securitas is a market leader in security, with over 240,000 employees, operating in 40 countries mainly in Europe, North and South America and Asia and is the largest provider of mobile security services in the UK and Ireland.

170 vans arrived at the NEC to start carrying out repairs and maintenance to 40,000 properties in Birmingham South.

The NEC in Birmingham was transformed this week into a sea of Willmott Dixon vehicles as the company's Partnerships' Birmingham South contract went live.

Over 170 vans arrived at the location ready for the go-live date on 5th April. The mobilisation follows Partnerships' appointment last year by the City Council for Birmingham South contract, covering repairs and maintenance to 40,000 properties.

The vans join the existing 130 strong fleet currently on Birmingham's streets as the new contract takes to 60,000 properties Partnerships' is responsible for in Britain's second city. The company has provided a repairs, maintenance and 24 hour call out service to 20,000 homes in Ladywood, Erdington, Peribar and Sutton Coldfield since 2008.

A mobilisation team led by Geoff Parkinson also transferred 430 maintenance staff from outgoing contractor MITIE for the Birmingham South contract. They are responsible for home in Edgbaston, Hall Green, Northfield and Selly Oak.

Speaking about the new contract, Partnerships' MD Mick Williamson said, "We are determined to support the Council's commitment to providing an efficient, value for money service for its tenants and are very much looking forward to migrating our productivity successes in the north of Birmingham to the south."

Developing and implementing a pioneering safety-focused online vehicle recall system has won Northgate Vehicle Hire's Claire Piggott a top award from the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA).

Claire, Recalls Administrator at Northgate, Britain's largest vehicle rental company with a fleet of more than 60,000 vehicles at 75 locations across the UK, was named 2009 BVRLA Industry Hero in the Commercial Vehicle category at the Association's annual dinner attended by around 900 people at London's Hilton Hotel, Park Lane, last night (Wednesday, March 3).

Claire, who has been at Darlington-based Northgate for two years, said: "I am absolutely delighted that my idea has won such a prestigious award. I am proud of the safety benefits it has given to the drivers of our vehicles.

"Historically the process for recalls was paper based, which was both time consuming and inefficient. This was proceeded with an excel spreadsheet where information was manually entered which was a full time administrative task and often prone to human error and time delays.

"I could see that there was an opportunity to introduce a new online system utilising Northgate's in-house IT development team which could integrate with our existing company database. Having this new initiative implemented within our organisation assists our commitment to safety."

BVRLA chief executive John Lewis said: "We are delighted with the positive reaction our members have given the BVRLA Industry Hero Awards in their first year. We received more than 30 entries from a wide range of companies, big and small. All of the candidates deserve recognition for their efforts and achievements, and it is a shame that we can only highlight three of them.

"Our industry's workforce is one of its biggest strengths, and the BVRLA Annual Dinner is the perfect setting to celebrate this."

In selecting the Northgate Online Recalls System as an Awards winner, the judges, led by BVRLA chairman Kevin McNally, said: "As well as being an outstanding safety initiative, Claire's achievement helps to demonstrate that our industry continues to put the welfare of all road users at the heart of what it does."

The benefits of the system include:

• Manufacturer vehicle recalls can now be identified on all fleet vehicles in real time enabling a significantly faster handling of the entire recall process
• Administrative time is cut by 90%
• Manufacturer recall details are received electronically and are therefore easily uploaded onto the Northgate system
• The system advises whether recall-related mechanical work can be done in-house at Northgate's own workshops or at a franchise dealer
• Customer details can be retrieved online so recalled vehicles can easily be located with standard letter templates available on the system to use for customer communications.

Claire added: "A further key to the success of the Online Recalls System was making it simple so it could be used by anyone, regardless of their level of IT literacy."

Although the Northgate Online Recalls System was pioneered and project managed by Claire, implementation required a full team effort, with help and support from IT Analyst Programmer Stephen Thompson and feedback and user-testing from across the Northgate rental UK-wide network of 75 locations.

Northgate Marketing Director, Ross Clarkson said: "This is an excellent initiative which highlights how we encourage all staff to get involved in sharing best practice and improving the way we do business."

"Vehicle recalls are at the centre of our customer safety policy and we will continue to focus on ensuring all recalls are completed quickly, correctly and efficiently.

"Our newly developed system further underlines our view that the safety of drivers and other road users is paramount and is why we are involved as a business champion for the 'Driving for Better Business' campaign.

He added: "Some of this work was done in Claire's own time demonstrating her commitment to implementing this new system, which has been instrumental in tackling the large number of manufacturer recalls."

"Implementation also portrays our committed approach to the ongoing growth and personal development of our employees, who are encouraged to look into new ways of helping the business become safer and more efficient for our customers."