City Link expands fleet ahead of Christmas peak
UK parcel delivery firm City Link has taken delivery of 56 new tractor units this week, as it prepares for the festive season peak. The company, part of Rentokil Initial plc, said the new vehicles were the first in a number of measures it is taking to ensure it can handle what is expected to be the busiest Christmas ever.
Fleet management and contract hire specialist Fraikin has supplied the Renault 340 Premium 4×2 tractor units, and will maintain them along with City Link’s other 500 tractor and trailer vehicles, under an existing deal.
The new vehicles are all Euro 5 compliant and have been fitted with Fraikin Vision, a telematics system that provides detailed analysis of vehicle movements to help improve fleet performance.
City Link said the new vehicles would help deliver fuel consumption savings as well as reducing its fleet emissions.
“Substantial investment”
Dave Smith, City Link MD (left) and Peter Backhouse, CEO of Fraikin with the first of the new City Link tractor units at the company’s Coventry hub.
Tim Brown, the sales and marketing director at City Link, said maintaining the company’s service levels for both business-to-business and business-to-consumer customers through the peak period was “top of our agenda.”
“If we are to achieve these, it is essential that we ensure that we have the right tools for the job,” he said.
“Over the past few months we have developed a robust plan and are making a substantial investment in manpower, vehicles and additional sites to ensure that we are ready to deal with the level of increased volumes we are expecting this Christmas.”
City Link had a fairly difficult Christmas last year, and tough trading in early 2012, with the competitive parcels market putting pressures on margins, while a shift of the product mix towards more business-to-consumer volumes meant the growth in parcel deliveries was less profitable.
The company has been implementing a recovery programme this year.
