COUNTRYSIDE SHIFTS TO ON-SITE FORDS
14 October 2005 - Ford

In Award-winning development company Countryside Properties, has chosen Ford as sole supplier for at least half of its fleet of more than 500 vehicles.

The 12-month deal, signed in September, involves diesel Mondeo, Focus and Fiesta models specified for employees in four of Countryside Property’s nine company-car grades.

Based in Brentwood, Essex, Countryside Properties is associated with the creation of sustainable new communities and urban regeneration. Formed in 1958, it employs 825 people and has a turnover of more than £360 million.

With offices in Warrington and London as well as Brentwood, the company operates mainly in London, the South-east and North-west of England. Its developments include both private and affordable housing, commercial property, and recreational and community facilities.

The Countryside Property fleet currently embraces a wide variety of makes, including a number of Fords. The cars in the four all-Ford grades are supplied on contract hire.

Grade 9, which formerly provided a choice of three makes for staff at graduate and materials controller level, is now served by the Ford Fiesta 1.4 LX TDCi.

Grade 8, which allowed a choice of five makes for foremen and site engineers, now specifies the Ford Focus 1.6 LX TDCi, while Grades 7 and 6, previously including six makes for site managers, are now covered by Mondeos - the 2.0 LX TDCi for Grade 7 and the Zetec for Grade 6.

''Ford has also supplied satnav on the Mondeos, which always seems to go down well with drivers,'' says Countryside Properties’ Transport and Facilities Manager Lee Robinson.

The company ran mainly Ford models some years ago but had gradually brought in other makes alongside them, using the Ford leasing rates as the benchmark. Now it believes that the solus arrangement will prove more advantageous.

''We went with Ford because the cars are capable of doing the job that’s required of them,'' says Mr Robinson. ''Some of the site engineers may feel that they need an estate car rather than a saloon for the work they’re doing, and that we would do, but most of our staff don’t need to carry a lot of equipment.

''The fleet is 75 per cent diesel, and the Fords involved in the new arrangement are all diesel, though we might start looking at including petrol models in future diesel starts to lose its competitive edge,'' added Lee Robinson.

Countryside Properties is supplied by up to four contract-hire companies at any one time, with all its contracts over four years and based on 20,000 miles a year.

www.ford.com

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