Helphire Group  has taken delivery of the first of 50 new Euro 5 Fiat Ducato-based transporters as part of its fleet replacement programme. The first vehicle is scheduled to go into active service at its Leicester depot this week.

The company, which has its head office in Bath, has specified 50 Fiat Ducato 33 B2B chassis 2.3 130bhp MultiJet II Euro 5 transporters built by KFS Special Vehicles Ltd. The vehicles will be supplied by Fiat Professional dealer, Guest Truck & Van Centre in Birmingham and will be used to transport the Group’s vehicles throughout the national network of over 20 branches and four operational contact centres across the UK.

Tim Bailey, fleet services director, Helphire Group plc says: "Running a fleet of over 8,000 vehicles and needing to move them from A to B, more often than not one car at a time, creates a number of challenges for us. Our fleet ranges from the smallest cars right up to the top of the range prestige and sports vehicles, so ensuring we have sufficient flexibility and maximum load weight on any transporter is essential.

“We ultimately chose the Fiat Ducato as the base for our replacement transporters as it delivered the best load weight without sacrificing power or driver comfort and at a cost that we found very workable. In addition to this, we have a very good relationship with Guest which helped us to explore a number of options that eventually led to the Ducato being chosen.”