Solus fleet deal with critical power specialist WB Power Services won by Arval

A new, solus fleet agreement with critical power specialist WB Power Services has been secured by Arval UK. 

Based in Heanor, Derbyshire, the family-owned business provides generator installations, temporary power, servicing, and renewable power solutions across the UK, working with businesses including data centres, healthcare and outdoor events. 

Its vehicles consist of around 160 vans and pickup trucks used for delivering and maintaining generators across the UK, and 75 cars operated by other field staff and senior management. 

Co-CEO Chris Wilmott said: “It’s difficult to emphasise how important the fleet is to our business. We deliver critical power, so ensuring that is provided with minimum interruption at best cost is very much at the core of what we do. We have a nationwide network of depots across the country where these new vehicles will support our customers. 

“Our rate of growth in recent years has seen us deal with vehicle requirements on an ad hoc basis. If we needed new vehicles at a point in time, we’d go out and buy what we required. It was obvious that we would have much to gain by working with a specific partner who could introduce much greater consistency. From conversations with David Raponi and the team at Arval, it became clear they could help us meet these objectives.” 

David Raponi, Corporate Sales Manager at Arval, said: “We’re providing a complete range of fleet services – not just vehicle procurement, leasing, and maintenance – but products such as risk management, downtime minimisation and more. However, it was clear that we needed to start with replacing the commercial vehicle fleet, working with the procurement team at WB Power Services, we conducted a commercial vehicle consultancy project to include a manufacturer and convertor review. 

“This exercise resulted in a range of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles – Amarok, Transporter and Caddy being adopted. Tailored racking and livery solutions were created by specialist provider Gentil ensuring that WBPS engineers were provided with a modern, future proofed conversion.” 

Chris said that drivers and senior management had been shown the new vans and pick-ups, and the reaction was excellent. “Arval provided us with expert guidance and the vehicles are ideally suited for our needs, they look great and will take our fleet on to another level. We’ve deliberately opted for high specification models because our people spend a long time on the road and we want them to be comfortable, happy and safe. The new Volkswagens exceed that brief, and the feedback has been really positive.” 

David and the Arval team have immediately implemented efficiencies and savings and through Arval’s business management team more will follow. Work has also started on the WB Power Services car fleet, with a new policy being introduced. A wide range of choice is offered to help ensure employee attraction and retention. 

Chris said: “It’s important to us that we provide cars that have definite appeal to employees but also, as we have grown, that we are able to bring more structure to the car fleet. Arval is helping us to deliver that and again, the response from our employees has been excellent. 

“This has been an all-round win for us. Everything about our fleet provision has improved and we are making substantial savings too. Deciding to work with Arval has been a great decision for us. Instead of our fleet being something of a reactionary need we now have a strategic supplier who can handle all of our needs effectively and professionally.” 

Steve Kirwan, Head of Corporate Sales at Arval, added: “WB Power Services is a huge success story as a business, and they’ve very much maintained its family feel making them a great company to work with. We knew from the beginning that we could improve the way they managed their fleet operations, and we could use our expertise and experience to make recommendations to help increase efficiencies along the way. This is a very exciting partnership for Arval, and I know our team are looking forward to working with WBPS over the years to come.”