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CASE STUDY: JOHN SMITH, SERVICE MANAGER, CATHEDRAL HYGIENE
Prius has proved reliable and durable for Cathedral Hygiene
Not many fleet managers will happily keep a car on the road for a quarter of a million miles, but then John Smith does not manage your average fleet. The service manager at Cathedral Hygiene, Smith is responsible for the running, maintenance and replacement of 44 Toyota Priuses. The hybrid’s reputation for reliability was one of the elements that attracted him, but that’s far from the whole story. “Back in 2004, the company bought its first Prius as a conscious decision to become a greener fleet,” says Smith. “We tried some other hybrid models, and we’ll always consider and evaluate any new car on the market, but the Prius wins out for us thanks to its reliability and low running costs that outweigh any higher initial costs.” When the first Prius joined the Cathedral Hygiene fleet in 2004, the company’s policy was to replace its petrol- and diesel-powered cars at 100,000 miles. Sales staff could easily achieve this within two years and the knock-on effect of changing cars so often was something Smith identified as needing a new approach. After the initial period of using a Prius, it became clear to Smith that he could extend the life of the vehicles on the fleet to 150,000 miles. A Prius on the Cathedral Hygiene fleet will complete this standard mileage before it’s even considered for replacement. Smith says: “We have several cars with more than 150,000 miles on the clock. Some use a little oil, though nothing out of the ordinary, so we reckon we’ve had the best out of them by this point.
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The Prius wins out for us ... its reliability and low running costs outweigh any higher initial costs
” 44
Number of Prius models run by Cathedral Hygiene
“However, we did have one Prius that we kept for four years that clocked up more than 240,000 miles without any problems. “We remarket our cars at four years old simply so they still have a value when they go to auction. This is another positive for the Prius as there is a ready market for used models, even ones with high mileages, so the residual values are strong.” The sales and management teams at Cathedral Hygiene both use the Prius and are very happy with it, says Smith. However, he explains this was not always the case: “There was a reluctance to switch to the Prius in the early days because it’s a hybrid and some [thought] it wasn’t a ‘proper’ car. “Now that everyone is used to the Toyota, they like them a lot and many of our team say they would happily buy one with their own money, which is as big an endorsement as you can get.” Smith cites the Prius’s ease of driving as one of the reasons Cathedral Hygiene’s staff was won round. He says: “It’s light and simple to operate, which makes it stress-free, which is a very important consideration when our drivers are covering large annual mileages.” He adds that the Prius shows no drop-off in performance, economy or battery charge, even after significant mileages. Smith uses fleet software to monitor the reliability, downtime and costs of every vehicle. This informs him when a car is liable to be sold on, but also gives him a detailed insight into how durable the Prius is. “We find the Prius very quickly cancels out the initial higher cost to buy compared to some rivals,” adds Smith. “We get a very good service from our local Toyota dealer when buying and servicing the cars. “In fact, if we could buy hybrid vans to add to the fleet, we would.”
www.mydrivingbusiness.co.uk ❚ Autumn 2013 ❚ 35