Fleet Management
INTRODUCING FLEET MANAGEMENT
Our Fleet Management department is responsible for making sure that our vehicle fleet is safe, compliant, efficient and offers good value for money. The fleet, which includes everything from standard cars to protective personnel carriers, is an essential resource for our people to enable them to deliver our service and support our vision of “Preventing and fighting crime, keeping our communities and people safe”.
MEET THE TEAMS
The Fleet Support administration team take care of all the unseen aspects of running a diverse emergency fleet. This includes making sure all administration is complete, updating our vehicle management systems, managing telematics, insurance and fuel services.
The Vehicle Maintenance Unit, based at Hutton, is a technical team that commissions our vehicles, carries out routine maintenance and repairs to both our vehicles, and the specialist equipment installed within them, keeping everything safe, reliable and compliant. They are supported by the parts team that makes sure we have the right parts at the right time.
The Vehicle Recovery and Liaison office manages our vehicle recovery and seizure contacts, making sure it does everything legally required and helping to keep Lancashire’s roads safe.
Case Study
The Vehicle Maintenance Unit (VMU) services a wide variety of vehicles, and a fleet size of over 930. New Technicians are often surprised at the accelerated wear and tear that these vehicles endure and how much more in depth our servicing is compared to regular car garages. The VMU is a key role to front line policing. I enjoy the variety of the fleet we work with, the constant development and evolution of vehicles as they move towards EV/carbon neutral vehicles. I also like having an input into the commissioning of new police vehicles.
Lancashire Constabulary provides support with ongoing personal development and assistance in providing courses and help towards job-related certifications. They are committed to helping employees get a good work/life balance by offering a flexible work pattern. The welfare support I have received in the past has been great. Occupational Health helped me with recovery from an injury by funding Physiotherapy sessions that fit in with my work schedule as it is on site.
Case Study
A typical day in my job involves managing the workload of vehicles through the vehicle workshop, with 13 technicians ready to begin work on fixing the vehicles. I also manage front of house staff to make sure that all parts for the vehicles are ordered correctly. I report to my fleet engineer if there any issues and rectify them to make sure that the VMU runs as smooth as possible. Recently we have ordered lots of new vehicles and their specifications are completely different to the last batch of vehicles. The police equipment is very high spec. Different departments get different vehicles depending on their needs, for example ARV armed response is more likely to have Volvo SUV whereas Dog Handlers have a Skoda Octavia estate.
Even though I have only been at Lancashire Constabulary for a short time, I have learnt a lot. I come from technical background rather than managerial and I have received a management training course, helping me develop my managerial techniques. I’m proud to be part of a team that gives officers the support and help they require so they can keep our streets safe and look after our communities.