Avis secures high profile new contract

Avis UK has secured a high profile new contract with defence, security and aerospace company BAE Systems to provide it with daily rental services over the next three years.

The £20 million pound contract went live in April and is being managed by Xchanging Procurement Services (XPS), the company which manages a number of procurement categories within BAE Systems.

Avis has set up and will manage five onsite rental locations for BAE Systems and its group companies, including a large facility at the company’s site in Farnborough. It has also opened three new rental sites at Southampton docks, Leicester and Barrow-in-Furness to service the contract. Up to 26 employees will be TUPE transferred onto the Avis payroll from incumbent supplier Hertz.

To service this element of the contract Avis has teamed up with Ford, which is supplying over 1,600 brand new cars, predominantly Focuses, and a handful of Fiestas and Mondeos. These have been supplied on a phased buy back agreement which sees cars being replaced at an average age of seven months, a key factor in BAE Systems’ service assessment.

A large degree of innovation is being rolled out to manage the contract on a daily basis including automatic e-invoicing which gives next day delivery of the final invoice for all worldwide rentals, thus no longer delaying expense claims. More than 5,000 BAE Systems employees have already signed up to Avis Preferred, which guarantees a driver’s car keys and a printed Rental Agreement within three minutes of them arriving to collect their car.

"Avis' ability to manage an accelerated implementation plan and eliminate the risks associated with a major change of supplier was a key factor in our success. I'm delighted with the way the Avis, BAE Systems and XPS teams worked together at pace. Bringing on 1,600 new Ford vehicles, opening eight new stations and implementing our Avis Preferred programme across 5,000 users in five weeks has been a great result," explained Anthony Ainsworth, Avis UK Sales Director.

“We have been delighted by the commitment and professionalism demonstrated by Avis during both the proposal and implantation phase, and look forward to building on that success over the life of the contract,” said Jim Robinson, BAE Systems Procurement Director.