BAKO South Eastern Partners with Enterprise Flex-E-Rent for Fleet Replacement Programme

When food service company BAKO South Eastern was looking to upgrade its temperature controlled distribution fleet, the Wimbledon-based organisation switched its acquisition policy from outright purchase to contract leasing and selected Enterprise Flex-E-Rent as its sole supplier for the new vehicle programme. This decision was taken as 12 vehicles in BAKO South Eastern’s 16-strong fleet were more than 10 years old and needed replacing.

This is the first time that Enterprise Flex-E-Rent has supplied vehicles to BAKO South Eastern and the seven-year agreement includes full R&M support.
As part of the agreement, Enterprise Flex-E-Rent has now delivered 12 new temperature controlled trucks to BAKO South Eastern, including two DAF Euro VI 12tonners and 10 DAF Euro VI 18tonners. Operating out of the BAKO South Eastern depot in Wimbledon, each truck has been built to precise customer specifications and is designed to enable maximum flexibility on BAKO’s distribution routes.
Darren Day, Transport Manager at BAKO South Eastern, said: “After a detailed financial appraisal as to whether to buy or lease, we decided to go with the lease option as we quickly realised that the deal Enterprise Flex-E-Rent could offer would free up capital for us to invest in other projects.

“We undertook research and considered a number of alternatives, but quickly decided the commercial offer from Enterprise Flex-E-Rent was the most accommodating and flexible in terms of vehicle specification.

“From placing the order, right through to final delivery, the service we have received from Enterprise Flex-E-Rent has been excellent. All the vehicles arrived on schedule, and even with some late changes to the final specification, the timeline proposed by Enterprise Flex-E-Rent has been perfect and totally in line with our requirements.”

The temperature controlled division of Enterprise Flex-E-Rent provides a comprehensive range of vehicle types and models that enables customers to access the correct choice of vehicle for the majority of temperature controlled applications from chill to heavy chill and deep frozen. The division now has a comprehensive national temperature controlled rental fleet that covers weight ranges from small vans right up to 26-tonne multi-compartment, multi-temperature rigids.

To meet the varying distribution requirements of BAKO South Eastern’s delivery schedule, the new rigid trucks all feature Gray & Adams refrigerated box bodies. The two 12-tonne DAFs have dual compartment bodies with Carrier Xarios refrigeration systems and are being used for deliveries mainly in the central London conurbation. The 10 18-tonne DAFs are being used for longer distribution journeys and have been specified with triple compartment bodies with Frigoblock FK13 refrigeration systems, featuring four movable bulkheads that can be positioned to suit the loads being carried.

Enterprise Flex-E-Rent’s managing director, Danny Glynn, said, “We could immediately see the scope for freeing up capital by switching BAKO South Eastern from purchase to leasing. From there we had a fast turnaround to ensure we were providing them with the optimum specification of temperature controlled trucks to suit their business requirements, and successfully delivering the trucks within what turned out to be a very demanding timeline. We hope this will be the first of many orders from BAKO South Eastern, as the whole process has shown what can be achieved when there is a strong partnership with a company that is open to a new approach.”