In 2019, we decided that we would be investing heavily in a new fleet by the end of the year. In February 2020, the first of the 162 vehicles, with our new branded livery, swiftly began to arrive at our office locations. However, after the first lot of van swaps, it would soon be apparent that the rest of the roll out would not be completed as swiftly.

In April 2020, it all came to an abrupt stop. When the country went into lockdown and travel was restricted to essential journeys only, our field engineers were put in furlough. Whilst we did provide maintenance and compliance services for essential businesses with our skeleton crew, many of them were still in their pre roll-out vehicles.

As of August 30th however, we are now catching up with this fleet update. Since we were also able to bring our wider work force out of furlough completely, you will start seeing our brand new vans in a lot more places.

Along with the new fleet we are also trialing a driver assistance and efficiency system, which rewards our best performing drivers. This will improve safety and fuel efficiency in line with our corporate and social responsibility targets.

“The company has invested in the Lightfoot driving technology to help the company meet its legal obligations, reduce our carbon footprint and damage to the environment, reduce the number of accidents and therefore downtime. The equipment is fitted to company vehicles to help ensure we have the safest drivers to help protect our own employees and others when on the UK busy roads.”

The features on the new vehicles allow for more comfortable temperature control, better connectivity to engineer’s devices, as well as accuracy in maneuvers.

What’s next?

JCW regularly review our vehicle specifications to do what we can to do less harm within our business needs. Having a fleet of 162 means our main impact on the environment is through the use of these company vehicles. So it is important that we can keep up to date with hybrid and electric options where possible, i.e. supported by infrastructure.

Although the infrastructure is not in place to support the business going all electric, hybrid vehicles are being test driven by some management staff, and the benefits are clear. This is definitely an option we will review again for the next vehicle replacement.

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That a JCW motorbike will soon to be in action by the end of September, a new starter in Royston who reports to Service Manager Nick. The Motorbike should reduce travel time around city centres. Especially in London, during rush hour!