As London’s largest housing trust, with over 100,000 residents, our aim at L&Q is to ensure that everybody who lives in one of our properties has a safe and decent home and access to services they can rely on.
Our fleet of 600 Ford vehicles is the backbone of that, enabling our operatives to carry out essential repairs and maintenance for our residents every day. But for years, we faced a persistent and costly challenge: vehicle downtime.
“By shifting from a reactive to a predictive maintenance model, Ford Uptime Services has given us an unprecedented view of our fleet's health.”Robin Jeffery, Fleet Manager, L&Q
Across our whole fleet, we were losing 58 working days a month on average with vehicles sat in garages awaiting anything from routine servicing to urgent repairs. Each day a van is off the road, it’s not just an administrative headache — it's a direct impact on our ability to help residents. The costs come quickly; lost productivity, repair bills and administrative overheads all add up.
If a vehicle’s not moving, it’s not supporting our residents and it’s not helping our reputation.
A year ago we began a trial with a new solution, Ford Uptime Services, to help with this issue. The proposition was simple: use the connected data from our vehicles to proactively manage their health and prevent downtime before it happens — like a fitness tracker for our fleet. The results have been nothing short of transformative.
By shifting from a reactive to a predictive maintenance model, Ford Uptime Services has given us an unprecedented view of our fleet's health. The system flags potential issues, allows us to pre-order parts, and schedules servicing for the most efficient times. It also allows me to have a more strategic overview of the fleet. The frustrating hours on the phone trying to book in a vehicle for work are now a thing of the past.
The numbers speak for themselves. Our vehicle downtime has been slashed from 58 days a month to just 23. That’s a 60 per cent reduction. We’ve reclaimed an average 35 days of operational time every single month. Financially, the impact is just as significant, with an estimated saving of around £17,000 per month.
That £17,000 is real money I can save for us to spend on making a real difference. We’re a not-for-profit organisation, so all the money L&Q makes is reinvested into helping those in greatest need. So as well as helping us support our existing residents more effectively, Ford Uptime Services has freed up more resources for us to build and manage affordable homes, investing in communities and furthering our social mission.
Our partnership with Ford Pro has allowed us to run a smarter, more efficient fleet, ensuring our teams have the tools they need, when they need them. Ford Uptime Services has fundamentally changed how we operate and proved that investing in the right technology doesn't just improve the bottom line — it improves the service we promise to our residents too.
Robin Jeffery is Fleet Manager for housing association L&Q.
