My best deal

Autumn 2010

 

Deal: Car Policy

Date: March 2009

Company: Vinci

Vinci is a global construction firm with more than 160,000 employees. Its vehicle fleet is the third largest in France  (behind the police and the postal service). In March 2009, I was asked to negotiate the group car contract.

It looks like a classical negotiation, but at the time, I had to consider some additional factors. First, the financial crisis had undermined the banks, some of which had subsidiaries specialising in vehicle rental. Automotive manufacturers were suffering the brunt of the recession, and lastly, the French government changed the rules on car purchases, which “killed” the second-hand car market by, in effect, preventing long-term rental companies from selling ex-fleet vehicles.

These are some of the deal’s main features:

• With the purchase leader for fleet, we surveyed 300 of our drivers to see what they wanted. They particularly wanted environmentally friendly and safer vehicles.
• I organised a public tender, with much more accurate specifications than the previous time.
• We identified all services for which we could go directly, such as the tyres and the windscreens.
• We selected models that do not exceed the emissions ceiling of 160g of CO2 per kilometre, which keeps the tax bill down.
• Despite these unfavourable conditions, we succeeded. In June 2009, we saved on average 9 per cent on the total cost of ownership of each vehicle.

Maria Canabal y Otero is vice-president of global procurement at Vinci