Double fleet awards win for Lancashire construction firm

Steve Openshaw, group fleet and transport manager for the Eric Wright Group , has won Fleet Manager of the Year 2022 at the national Fleet News Awards and the business picked up the Fleet of the Year award.

Steve was selected by the judges for his work on bringing forward the group’s electric vehicle targets by two years.

The Bamber Bridge based property and construction company was aiming to have 60 per cent of its leased car fleet as hybrid or pure electric by 2025 but is now set to meet that deadline next year.

On making the award the judges said: “Steve is on top of his game, delivering extraordinary value to his business. He combines an old-school background in fleet management with modern thinking and has completely nailed the key pillars of his policy, including grey fleet, electric transition, risk policy, data monitoring and cost management.”

Steve said: “We’ve worked really hard to bring forward our electric fleet targets and install as many EV charging points as possible for our active fleet and I’m very proud that the judges recognised this achieved from the whole team. Two years ago only 20 per cent of our fleet was EV or hybrid but today our order bank is currently 95 per cent electric and we’re proud that we will meet our 2025 commitments two years early.

He added: “80 per cent of our MDs now have electric vehicles with the others being in plug in hybrid or a full electric vehicle on order, all of our employees, regardless of pay grade can choose a battery electric option.”

To support the group’s drive to a fully electric fleet the power supply to the existing charge points at its head office on Sceptre Way is being upgraded and a further 20 charge points will be installed by summer.

Thirty charging points are also being installed across its north west property portfolio.

Group managing director Jeremy Hartley said: “Steve has worked tirelessly to bring forward our conversion to an entirely electric fleet and we are delighted that this ambitious objective has been recognised at a national level.

"We are constantly reviewing our operational practices across the Group to see where we can make changes to support our commitment to carbon reduction and the conversion of our fleet is a fundamental part of this wider strategy.”