Fleet management group FMG has been awarded a major contract to manage about 900 Asda vehicles for the retailer’s home shopping operation.

The vehicles, which operate out of locations across the South of England, represent about 50% of the Leeds-based retailer’s entire home shopping fleet.

The contract includes planned maintenance, breakdown, operational and accident repairs as well as the provision of fleet intelligence.

Key elements of the support provided by Huddersfield-based FMG will be to improve reliability, optimise availability and minimise cost.

The solution, which has been carefully tailored to the specific needs of Asda Home Shopping, encompasses a number of key innovations designed to bring significant operational benefits to the fleet.

Asda is at the forefront of online shopping one of the most competitive areas of the UK retail market.

Home delivery fleets undertake many thousands of hours of intensive urban driving every year, as well as being subjected to the normal rigors of a commercial van fleet.

Sean Clifton, Asda’s grocery home shopping fleet contract manager, said:

“Asda is focused on delivering outstanding performance for our customers and we expect nothing less from our Home Shopping fleet operations.

“The team at FMG have demonstrated their understanding of the key drivers to success - safety, service and a cost-down approach to fleet management and a commitment to deliver the best results possible.”

Kevin Gordon, client development director at FMG, said: “We fundamentally understand how important 
working vehicles are to our clients’ businesses and we fully appreciate how essential it is to meet and exceed their expectations.

“We’re absolutely delighted to have been awarded this contract, which will see us work with one of Britain’s biggest retailers.”

This key win for FMG, adds to the company’s growing list of fleet support services provided to many of the  largest leasing, insurer and vehicle operators in the UK.

FMG now provides industry-leading support services to a portfolio of more than 500,000 vehicles including  incident management, 24-hour breakdown, risk management, fleet  management, insurance services and telemetry-enabled “Intelligence”.

The company was recently reappointed to the Highways Agency NVRM contract to co-ordinate the recovery of vehicles from across England’s strategic road network.