Fleet Assist has onboarded a record number of new OEM franchise garages onto its network as it continues to develop its SMR network footprint to meet the needs of its leasing, rental and fleet customers.
During 2025 Fleet Assist is on track to have more than 400 new garages sign up to join its network of over 5,200-strong garage and 600 mobile service units that represent the growing number of new OEMs entering the UK.
“New OEMs entering the UK market are talking to us earlier and earlier as they understand that without a credible SMR ecosystem in place they struggle to get access to the fleet market,” explained Nikos Kotrozos, Fleet Assist’s supply chain director.
“Our network management strategy continues to be laser focused on delivering all the benefits expected of a managed network ensuring representation of new OEMs is ahead of the curve combined with our agnostic approach with no competing interests. It is not just about the number of garages we add to our network it is about bringing on the right capacity and capability partners in the right locations with the right skillset,” he added.
Most of the new OEMs, particularly the ones originating from China, have targeted the rental, leasing and salary sacrifice sectors for vehicle sales growth. A significant number of those are BEVs, an area which Fleet Assist has been working on since the early adoption of mild hybrid and full hybrid and eventually BEV technology.
“Currently over 86% of our network is EV ready with many garages investing in technician training and their garage infrastructure to match the growth of new EV sales,” said Kotrozos.
“We continue to invest in our unique Balanced Business Scorecard which measures the performance of our garage network which is a powerful tool for Fleet Assist, our customers, and the garages themselves. For new OEMs with a new dealer network this can provide an immediate benchmark of service level performance in the fleet sector,” he added.
This announcement comes at a time when Fleet Assist has onboarded its 52nd fleet and leasing customer which together operate over 1.4m fleet vehicles.
