Fraikin wins seven year contract with Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service

29 January 2007

Commercial vehicle fleet services provider Fraikin has won a prestigious seven year fleet management contract with the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service (RBFRS), estimated to be worth over £450,000 per annum.

The fleet management contract covers the servicing and maintenance of over 300 pieces of equipment, including 50 frontline fire appliances and over 50 other vehicles, ranging from high rise aerial rescue special appliances through to personnel carriers and staff cars.  The remaining equipment includes forklift trucks, trailers, generators, hydraulic cutters and a rescue boat.

Servicing and maintenance will be managed by Fraikin’s Heathrow branch, supported by two dedicated mobile service units which will visit the 20 fire stations across the county, stretching from Slough and Langley in the east to Lambourn and Newbury in the west.  Emergency roadside assistance will also be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

In addition to managing the fleet, Fraikin will supply RBFRS with a comprehensive series of management information, including detailed analysis of the maintenance spend per vehicle/asset and per location.  This will allow Fraikin to highlight discrepancies and make recommendations where improvements can be made to maximise productivity and longevity.

Assistant Chief Fire Officer and Director of Support Services, Des Tidbury, said: “Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service expects to deliver the highest possible standards of service to the people it serves and we are confident that Fraikin will work in partnership with us to deliver those high standards.”

The signing of this new contract increases the number of vehicles on fleet management with Fraikin in the UK to 6,000, including over 1,000 other ‘blue light’ vehicles managed for customers including the Oxfordshire Ambulance NHS Trust and the National Blood Service.

The Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service provides cover 24 hours a day, 365 days a year across an area which includes one of Europe’s busiest motorways, busy urban centres, suburban communities and large rural areas.

Its 600 highly-trained firefighters, 150 of whom work the retained duty system, attend some 12,000 incidents every year, ranging from road and rail accidents to fuel and chemical spills, aviation and waterway accidents, collapsed buildings, large animal rescues and fires.  In 2006, Berkshire firefighters dealt with more than 5,000 fires, in houses, industrial premises, vehicles and open spaces. They carried out more than 2,000 rescues of members of the public, including those trapped or at risk in buildings or in road accidents.