Fleet programme saving police £7m
From left, Steve Thompson, Head of Transport for West Yorkshire Police, with his North Yorkshire counterpart Richard Flint at North Yorkshire Police headquarters in Newby Wiske, with three of the first vehicles converted under the new agreement. (S)
A money-saving regional fleet programme is on target to save police forces across Yorkshire and the Humber more than £7m.
A number of cost-cutting initiatives have been introduced after the four forces in the region were set a savings target of £10m over five years.
Heads of transport at North Yorkshire Police, West Yorkshire Police, South Yorkshire Police and Humberside Police joined forces to establish a more collaborative way of working which has helped to keep vehicle maintenance, vehicle conversions and training costs in-house.
Richard Flint, head of transport for North Yorkshire Police, said: “The regional link-up has been very positive so far and the changes we have made have resulted in some substantial cost savings.
“The way we are working now is much more viable for the future – we are sharing contracts, keeping costs in-house and redistributing the money within our forces.”
There is also an agreement in place to collaborate with other North-East region police forces when purchasing vehicles, and fleet bosses have negotiated regional contracts for emergency warning equipment, livery for police vehicles, and have agreed to standardise all vehicles across the forces.
In addition, all the region’s forces are now using West Yorkshire Police’s vehicle commissioning department in Bradford, allowing money that would previously have been given to outside agencies to be re-circulated within the forces.
Mr Flint said: “We have discovered that by standardising our vehicles across the region a great deal of money can be saved and we are currently looking at all potential opportunities for collaboration.
“The regional heads of fleet meet regularly to identify further saving opportunities and monitor the progress of the initiatives we currently have in place.”
Other cost-saving measures which are taking place include the setting up a regional technical group, regional training of staff and the consideration of introducing one computerised fleet system to streamline administration processes across all the regional forces.
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Friday 18 May 2012
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