Fleet management specialist BT Fleet has completed the delivery of 5,000 new vehicles, worth £80 million, to its parent company BT Group in just five months.

The order represents the biggest bulk vehicle order that BT, with one of the largest fleets in Europe, has made for several years and has generated an overwhelmingly positive response from drivers.

The majority of the order for new Fiat, Ford, Vauxhall and Iveco vehicles was for Openreach, which maintains the UK's local access network – the fibre, cables and wires that run from homes and businesses to their local exchange.

Other vehicles fitted with new BT Sport livery have been deployed in BT Ireland, BT Business and other smaller units within the BT Group.

All the vehicles were customised to BT specifications with racking, Chapter 8 Traffic Safety Measures and Signs markings, beacons and livery.

A further 145 specialist cabling vans are awaiting Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) sign-off.

These vans will soon be installing new fibre broadband for Openreach’s more than £3 billion programme across the UK, enabling more than 500 communication companies to offer services to homes and businesses.

Despite the large size of the order, logistical complexities, design and delivery considerations and the short time frame, BT Fleet completed the project on schedule and on budget.

It created 12 'hubs' strategically located across the UK to inspect the new vehicles and hand them over to drivers.

The hubs also decommissioned the old vehicles to prepare them for sale at auction. Vehicle downtime was kept to a minimum despite 300 deliveries being completed a week.

The response from the drivers of the new vehicles when polled about the project was a 99.6% 'very satisfied' rating.

Duncan Webb, commercial director of BT Fleet believed that the company’s commitment to a strong partnership and effective communication with the drivers, suppliers and other stakeholders gave it the edge.

He said: "The success of this project is thanks to effective teamwork across our supply chain.

"The delivery methods we used have created a new way to mobilise at pace effectively and efficiently.

"The job was brought in on time, on budget and most importantly, we have made a huge difference to the daily working environment of our engineers."

Having successfully completed this project, BT Fleet is now firmly focused on its plans for 2015-16, which has begun with the commissioning of 330 new Vauxhall Corsas.