One of the 220 Nissan NV200 vans ordered by Richard Irvin Services Group.
Nissan has never been a big player in the UK fleet van market, but it is gradually making in-roads into this important sector.
Earlier this year, British Gas added 138 Nissan Primastars to its fleet and the Japanese manufacturer has now announced that it has received an order to supply 275 NV200 and Primastar vans to Scottish building services and engineering company, Richard Irvin Services Group (RISG).
The initial order comprises 220 NV200s and 55 Primastars and will be delivered in stages over the next 30 months. Each van will be kept for four years and all will be finished in striking RISG livery. The NV200s will have roof racking fitted with a roller bar plus internal racking for equipment and tools storage.
24 NV200s and 10 Primastars medium vans are already with RISG field engineers who will use the new vehicles to provide an around-the-clock maintenance service when visiting customers who require an on-call reactive service. This order is Nissan’s largest corporate LCV order yet in the UK, highlighting the progress it is making in this key sector.
RISG receives in excess of 60,000 customer calls per annum, and covers the whole of Scotland. As a result, it needed vehicles that are reliable and can comfortably house repair equipment, as well as keep their drivers in comfortable and safe when covering long distances.
Feedback so far has been positive, with drivers praising the vans for their handling, performance and fuel economy.
George Robb, Richard Irvin Services Group procurement director said:
“We’re currently going through a period of investing in our people and capital and this deal marks an integral part of this strategy. We took a product rather than price led selection approach by making sure our drivers tested the vehicles first to ensure they were fit for purpose and we’re happy the feedback so far from the drivers has been so positive.”
Although the Vauxhall Vivaro and some Renault Trafic models are manufactured at the Vauxhall plant at Luton, the Nissan Primastar — despite being essentially the same vehicle — is manufactured at Nissan’s plant in Spain, near Barcelona, as is the NV200. Nissan remains one of the largest vehicle manufacturers in the UK, however, building several of its popular car models, including the Juke and the Qashqai, at its Sunderland plant, which employs 6,000 people.