Release Date :  Wednesday 3 December 2008

A unique joint working initiative has saved Scotland’s police, fire & rescue and ambulance services over £1.6m million in its first two years and is on course to achieve annual savings of £4 million from the cost of purchasing and maintaining vehicles.

The Tripartite Fleet project was launched in 2006, with £1million of funding support over two years from the Scottish Government, to implement an efficiency programme across police, fire and ambulance vehicle fleets. Every pound saved is reallocated into front line services within each organisation.

Kenny MacAskill, Cabinet Secretary for Justice, speaking at the group’s first conference today, said:

“This is an excellent example of partnership working that clearly benefits the community as a whole.

By working together, the emergency services are improving their operational effectiveness by consolidating vehicle workshops in appropriate locations, with better training and equipment for staff. This will reduce the time that vehicles need to be off the road for routine maintenance or repairs, delivering higher availability of front line vehicles and greater resilience, as well as better value for the public purse.”

Fleet management is a mission critical area of support for all three organisations and continuity of service is vital for each.  In Scotland the three services (8 police, 8 fire, 1 ambulance) operate 5554 vehicles with annual running costs of £54.8 million and further capital costs of £24 million.

As well as savings on purchase and maintenance of vehicles, there is potential to achieve further savings by creating one national contract for fuel supplies, vehicle recovery and insurance.