LOOKING BACK: FLEETDRIVE ISSUE 16
FLEETDRIVE
Case Study Orana
“The offer that Mitsubishi Motors presented to
us with the fully maintained lease agreement,
together with the business relationship quite
frankly was a no-brainer and the rest was
history,” says Orana’s Strategic Procurement &
Asset Manager Sava Politis.
Orana has a well-established relationship with
Mitsubishi Motors, including the lease of nine
Mitsubishi vehicles.
“Prior to that we never leased our vehicles, we
always purchased them outright – so this was
the first time we ever entered into a leasing
agreement,” said Vicky Cotis, manager of
communications and branding.
As a not-for-profit organisation Orana plays a vital
role in supporting South Australians living with
disability, helping them access services and work.
Having the right vehicles in place to minimise cost
and improve productivity is critical. In the case of
the Outlander PHEVs much of the savings came
from reconsidering how many kilometres their fleet
vehicles were doing each day.
“The majority of our Outlander PHEV’s were for
metro use, and it came down to an education for
ourselves where we found every month, we were
saving money for fuel because drivers were only
doing anywhere from 30km to 50km per day,”
Politis says.
“It was a long-term venture – but for metro driving
there’s a significant amount of cost savings if the
vehicles are managed correctly while on the road
and then charged accordingly.”
As part of the agreement, Orana doesn’t pay for
any of the scheduled servicing, tyre replacements
or vehicles within the “fair wear” policy. A separate
arrangement with a local Mitsubishi dealership has
seen vehicles that require service picked up and
returned directly to Orana at no additional cost –
leaving the organisation greater flexibility to work
on other important aspects of their operations.
“Certainly our relationship with our local
dealership has been fantastic and the training
that has been provided by Mitsubishi has been
invaluable,” Politis says.
“Mitsubishi provided us with videos on how to use
and how to charge the vehicles, and anyone using
an Outlander PHEV was given proper training by
myself before they could use them.”
“On the whole we certainly do value our
relationship with Mitsubishi, and the whole
package has provided a sustainable and cost-
effective solution for the organisation.”
ISSUE 20 2019 / WWW.AFMA.ORG.AU
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