Fleet & Transport Manager

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Gillingham, Kent | Full-time, permanent | £45,000–£55,000 depending on experience

About Us London Fire Solutions (LFS) was set up in 2011 and is a specialist passive fire protection business covering fire doors, fire stopping, surveys and maintenance. We manufacture our own fire doors at our 21,000 sq ft facility in Gillingham, work across London, the South Coast and the Midlands, and have clear plans to keep growing through to 2030.

The role

Our fleet has grown with the business. We now run around 65 commercial vehicles plus the LFS Passive Fire Bus, our mobile training double decker bus. That costs roughly £1.3m a year, and the figure will go up as we grow.

We're looking for a Fleet & Transport Manager to take full ownership of it. That means keeping the fleet compliant and well organised. It also means controlling the cost, planning ahead and making sure we only pay for vehicles we actually need.

You'll report to our Head of Operations and work closely with Finance, Operations and Health & Safety.

What you'll be doing

• Keeping one accurate fleet register covering every vehicle, driver, contract, cost and key date
• Setting and managing the fleet budget with Finance, and producing a monthly report covering spend against budget, cost per vehicle, utilisation, vehicles off road, damage, contract expiries and key risks
• Reviewing how every vehicle is used, and removing or reallocating any we don't need
• Managing leasing, hire, maintenance, fuel and insurance suppliers: benchmarking prices, negotiating terms, challenging poor service and recovering credits
• Planning renewals, MOTs, servicing and replacements well in advance, with a rolling 18-month fleet plan that includes where EVs make sense
• Keeping the fleet and our drivers compliant, including licence checks, vehicle checks, driver policies and roadworthiness
• Getting to the bottom of accident and damage costs, and working with Operations and Health & Safety to bring them down
• Cutting avoidable costs such as excess mileage, unnecessary hire, lease-return damage and early termination charges

What we're looking for

• Proven experience managing a commercial vehicle fleet, ideally of a similar size
• Strong with numbers: budgets, cost analysis and clear monthly reporting, with good Excel skills
• Experience of vehicle leasing, supplier management and negotiation
• Good working knowledge of fleet compliance and transport legislation
• Transport Manager CPC preferred. If you don't hold it, you'll need to be willing to get it within 12 months, and we'll pay for it
• Experience of telematics and fuel card systems (we use Radius)
• Well organised, plans ahead and takes ownership of problems through to a solution
• Confident challenging drivers, managers and suppliers when something isn't right
• Full UK driving licence

What we offer

• Company pension
• Cycle to work scheme
• Employee discount scheme
• Health & wellbeing support
• Life insurance

If this sounds like you, apply with your CV and a short note on the fleets you've managed: size, vehicle types, budget and any savings you've delivered