23 February 2017 - Business mobility and fleet leasing specialist, Alphabet today announced it had been awarded the ‘Innovation’ award in the 2017 Van FleetWorld Honours held at the Royal Automobile Club, Pall Mall, London. In addition to this recognition for its ‘Virtual Handover’ initiative for Commercial Vehicles, the company celebrated a double success by winning the ‘Innovation in Contract Hire and Leasing’ award at this year’s Fleet World Honours.
Simon Simmons, Supplier Relationship Manager at Alphabet collected the Innovation award on behalf of the company in the 2017 Van FleetWorld Honours for the ‘Virtual Handover’ service. Simmons explains: “When we launched Virtual Handover for LCVs we knew that we didn’t want to simply replicate what we’ve done for company cars. So we listened to our LCV customers who told us that one of their key challenges with highly-customised commercial vehicles was that these vehicles could be driven and used by a different employee every single day. They’re not just transportation - these vehicles are highly specialised, highly equipped mobile places of business. We wanted to harness the power of the technology in employee’s hands – the smartphone - to help solve this problem.
While some leasing companies have trialled video technology for vehicle handovers, Alphabet are the only company providing a Virtual Handover across all manufacturer vehicles and for all new car and LCV deliveries fulfilled by their Preferred Dealer Network. The QR code technology is provided for highly customised commercial vehicles supplied via TEVO, one of Alphabet’s network of LCV Approved Conversion Partners.”
Dan Gilkes, Editor of Van FleetWorld commented: “Alphabet has used technology to help fleet customers to get to grips with new vehicle conversions through the use of its Virtual Handover service. By using quick response (QR) code technology for converted vans from supplier TEVO, Alphabet customers can access video guides to their new vans up to two weeks before delivery.
The videos are created by the converter and provide fleet managers and drivers with a virtual handover that explains all of the new features of the van and the conversion. The service has been particularly well received by fleets where multiple drivers will use the vehicle, allowing each operator to become accustomed to the features of the conversion before starting work with the new van.”
In addition, Alphabet also received the 2017 Fleet World Honours award for ‘Innovation in Contract Hire and Leasing’ which was collected by Leo Taylor, Head of Product Management in recognition of the company’s leading role in propelling the adoption of Ultra-Low Emission Vehicles (ULEVs) through simple, flexible mobility.
Taylor commented: “From the outset, Alphabet has demonstrated a strategic commitment to supporting ULEVs and making low-emission, sustainable mobility an everyday reality for businesses and public sector organisations in the UK. In 2016 we more than doubled the size of our plugged-in fleet and even more significantly over 10% of all OLEV grants in the UK in 2016 were via Alphabet. Thanks to this approach, Alphabet plays an unrivalled part in the corporate and public sector movement to reduce fleet CO2 and NOX emissions.”
Alex Grant, Editor at Fleet World highlighted: “Alphabet’s Flexible Mobility solution, featuring EV car sharing and renting, has proved that you can turn nice-to-have concepts into genuinely useful everyday realities. Customers have saved thousands of pounds in travel costs as a result, proving the future really is here.”
