The Purchase and Leaseback scheme operated by Ryder is proving highly popular with the manufacturing sector with the latest convert being Blackheath Products – the West Midlands based distributor of kitchen furniture, appliances, work surfaces and flooring. As part of the contract, 15 existing Blackheath trucks have been purchased by Ryder and then leased back to the company over a period ranging from 12-48 months, depending on age, mileage and condition of each vehicle. Ryder has also overseen the disposal of a number of older trucks, while at the same time supplying new trucks to replace them, including the first 5 ton curtainsiders to enter the Blackheath fleet.
“We previously purchased all of our trucks, but as our fleet size grew, so did the problems,“ comments Ian Foster, chairman, Blackheath Products. “Our third party maintenance provider could only carry out routine maintenance and breakdown repairs during the daytime and this meant holding vehicles back from distribution duties for servicing. This resulted in our fleet size being larger than it needed to be to ensure that we always had enough trucks to cover for those under repair.

“The contract with Ryder not only improves the efficiency of our distribution operation, while returning cash to our balance sheet, but as Ryder services the trucks overnight we no longer need to have spare vehicles or suffer vehicle downtime for routine maintenance.

“Other business benefits include fixed costs, which enable us to keep to budget. Ryder also provides us with a monthly management report on each vehicle so that we see which vehicles are achieving the best operational and performance standards and act accordingly. In addition, Ryder can provide rental vehicles to supplement our fleet, when we get peaks of demand, so we have the inherent flexibility to ‘right size’ our distribution operation to meet customer demands, whatever they may be.

“Overall, our move to vehicle outsourcing with Ryder has enabled us to increase the efficiency of our operation, while reducing cost. This provides the basis of a perfect partnership.”

- ends -

For further information, please contact Colin Peck on 07802 606433.