Neva Consultants was formed in April 1992 by current Directors Graham Prince and Nick Collinson, delivering vehicle fleet services including leasing, fleet management and finance. The business has grown year-on-year but until recently they have not shouted about their achievements.
Graham Prince explains, “Our ethos is always been to adopt a traditional approach, focusing on establishing and growing close business relationships with customers using market leading technology, but always with customer service at the heart of what we do.
“However, when we started to get near to our 25th anniversary we thought it would be interesting to enter ourselves into some awards and see what the outside world thought of us.”
It appears that the outside world had quite a positive view.
Neva began by accepting the Regional Winner Award from the British Chamber of Commerce for the Innovation Product of the Year in 2015 for their Fleet Management System known as C-Fleet
This gave them the confidence to enter the Small Fleet Leasing Federation Awards in 2016. Neva became double award winners picking up the Best Leasing Broker 1000-4000 Annual Vehicle Sales (sponsored by BMW/ Mini) and the Best Leasing Broker Customer Service Award up to 4000 Annual Vehicle Sales (sponsored by Hyundai). These Awards were particularly pleasing as they were judged by Neva’s industry peers including leasing companies as well as other industry leading figures from Grant Thornton, BCA and The Miles Consultancy, and they were up against leasing brokers throughout the UK.
Their reputation was further enhanced when having won ‘The Leasing Broker of the Year for deliveries 250 – 1000 with LeasePlan t/a Network only in 2016’ Neva went on to be crowned ‘The OverallLeasePlan t/a Network Franchisee of the Year Award for 2016’ beating all other category winners.
This award was judged on sales growth year-on-year, customer service feedback, quality of documentation, breadth of products supplied and overall standards adhered to, as well as the politeness and efficiency demonstrated by our staff in dealing with LeasePlan on a day to day basis.
So what is behind the company’s success?
Graham says, “We are seeing the trend for companies to outsource some or all of their fleet responsibilities to leasing or fleet management partners continuing unabated into 2017. Often their rationale varies dependent on size – small companies are unable to justify dedicated fleet resource while larger companies want to free up fleet time for strategising; but in other ways they want the same outcomes – improved cost control, greater efficiencies and less admin.”
Neva Consultants presently supplies and helps to manage 6,000 vehicles and we would like this to grow to 7,500 in three years’ time. They work very closely with the Directors of companies advising whether the vehicles they require could be funded by the company or personally, but in all cases the vehicles are maintained on one platform, C-Fleet, to ensure when they are driven on company business they are fit for purpose, legally insured and driving licence checks have been regularly maintained.
The C-Fleet Management System is backed up by a convenient driver app that enables Companies to manage their Duty of Care responsibilities for all vehicles used for Company Business regardless of how they are funded or owned.
Graham explains, “When we are introduced to a new customer we always start with the Company Car Policy that may require alteration to keep up with legal regulations or even may need to be completely re-written. This Policy must be for all drivers regardless who funds the vehicle and even down to whether short term renting of vehicles rather than employees driving their own vehicles on company business if there is any risk whatsoever to the reputation of the company. Neva takes Duty of Care and their customer’s reputations as if it were their own which brings good peace of mind for any business owner.
“We have big Fleet Management tools for small and medium sized fleets. We take a certain pride in being able to demonstrate how and why we can save our customers money and manage their Fleets so they are able to concentrate on their core business”.
IS YOUR COMPANY CAR SCHEME LEGAL?
All organisations with five or more employees who drive for work need to be able to prove that they have met the minimum standards under their Duty of Care for employees.
Are you compliant?
Can you answer ‘yes’ to the following questions?
Do you currently:
• Have a corporate risk assessment and a system for managing road risk?
• Have a risk mitigation plan in place to address general and specific needs uncovered by the risk assessment?
• Have an audit trail to be able to prove the actions at both corporate and employee level?
• Have processes in place that cover employees driving their own cars on business as well as company cars?
Any organisations who don’t meet these standards are not managing road risk and are breaking the law. This carries significant risk exposure and the Health & Safety Executive, VOSA and Police may pursue a prosecution against the organisation and any or all of its Directors, management and staff.
If you would like any advice on this, please email or call us. We are committed to providing simple, practical, easy-to-use solutions to all of our customers, enabling them to run their fleets safely and efficiently. Our SafePlan product will assist you to identify and meet your Duty of Care obligations surrounding employees that use vehicles on company business.
Tel: 01825 720900.
Email info@neva-consultants.com
www.neva-consultants.com
