National Windscreens is renewing and growing its fleet of vehicles for technicians and staff as part of a £10 million investment over four years, it has announced.

As part of the investment, 158 new 2021 model year vans, mainly Ford Transit Custom and Vauxhall Movano vehicles, will be added to the fleet over next few months.

National Windscreens said the new vehicles will have cleaner engines, factory-fitted safety features and specialist windscreen repair and replacement equipment.

The refresh of the company fleet will enable it to maximise uptime with fewer breakdowns, said National Windscreens.

“Time on the road is a critical measure for us in our mission to serve the fleet industry. Our job is to keep these key vehicles on the road, and bring them back into service safely and quickly,” said Mark Payne, National Windscreens’ regional managing director.

“With the investment in new vehicles for our own technicians and staff, we’re able to maintain a much more reliable service, and if we’re on the road more reliably, then so are our customers.”

The new vans feature monitoring equipment including dash cameras, repair and replacement tools such as canopies so that work can be carried out in inclement weather, onboard racking to securely carry new glass, and inverters to provide a 240V supply to power technicians’ tools.

Vauxhall recently introduced Griffin Edition trim levels across its Combo, Vivaro and Movano vans, offering high levels of specification.

The company said it is making plans to move to an all-electric car fleet for its non-fitting staff.

Nicky Coetsee, regional director and general manager at National Windscreens, said: “The latest cohort of vehicles feature Euro 6-certified engines which are cleaner to run than ever before, but we are constantly evaluating the market and the infrastructure available to pinpoint the right time to make the switch to electric powertrains for our fitting vehicles.

“We have already made this change to electric power with our non-fitting staff vehicles, with 47 of these now either hybrid or fully electric.”