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The start point for the best source of fleet information |
This year's BC50 table sees the biggest companies growing their fleets, and several of those in the middle shrinking in size, with a handful of other mid-table performers growing by more than 25%.
Such strong numbers mean good news for leasing companies, and all of the top six in this year's table have shown impressive growth, increasing their fleets by up to 19% - no mean feat for businesses that all had more than 90,000 vehicles on their books last year.
With the companies placed in fourth to sixth showing double-digit growth, outpacing the companies on this year's BC50 podium, we could be in for a shake-up at the top of the leasing charts over the next few years. Despite this, Lex Autolease has held on to its position at the top of the pile, with a fleet size of 307,300 representing a 6.1% increase over 2014's figure of 289,517.
Leaseplan, meanwhile, has seen a 5.4% rise, with its fleet now extending to 147,276 vehicles. Closing in on Leaseplan, however, with a rate of growth of 7.9% is Alphabet, which wades in with a 2015 fleet size of 140,460 vehicles - consisting of many more cars than Leaseplan but fewer LCVs. Fourth spot, as in 2014, is taken up by ALD Automotive, with its 11.3% growth rate keeping it ahead of Volkswagen Financial Services and Arval.
VW Financial Services, however, has managed to leapfrog Arval - just - chalking up a total of 110,393 vehicles compared with 110,324 for the latter company - an increase of 19.2%.
Last year, we reported that VW Financial Services had the ambition of becoming the UK's third-largest leasing company, ahead of Alphabet, before the end of the decade, and following a 31% increase in 2014 this could become a reality. We contacted VW Financial Services for a comment on how the company had managed to pull off such impressive growth, but in the wake of the emissions scandal Volkswagen is embroiled in, it declined to comment.
Looking at the car/LCV split, however, it appears that most of its growth has come from cars - something that could potentially be hit by the emissions scandal, as VW's credibility plummets following its lethargic response to the media and customers alike as to how UK cars are affected, whether they break any EU laws, and what modifications will be needed to address any issues.
Arval is likely to pass VW next year though, with the acquisition of GE Capital's leasing volume propelling it into a possible second place.
Other companies that performed well in this year's chart include Citroen Contract Motoring, which increased in size by 17.5%, Tusker, which grew by 28%, and Carillion Fleet Management, whose fleet mushroomed in size by 40.6%. Meanwhile, FCA Group chalked up an extremely impressive 83.5% fleet increase, going from 3088 vehicles last year to 5667 this year. Agility Fleet also secured a strong 26.6% growth.
It's not all good news, though, with a handful of companies tumbling down the tables. The biggest brand to reduce in size is Zenith, which shrunk by 5.6% to 54,248 vehicles, with Arnold Clark now snapping at its heels despite a 7000-vehicle gap last year. BT Fleet and Inchcape Fleet also saw declines of around 2%. Toyota Financial Services, on the other hand, shrunk by a small 0.6%, while Days Contract Hire lost 6.4% of its fleet size, and Fleet Hire a more substantial 8.1%.
The biggest drops, however, include Toomey Lease with a 11.4% drop in fleet size, MNH Platinum (11.3%) and Fulton Leasing (12.1%). Hilton Vehicle Leasing and Windsor Vehicle Leasing also fell by around 9% each.
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