Toyota Prius Helps TC Cleaning Services Save Money

The UK’s largest independently owned cleaning contractor, TC Cleaning Services, says it managed to cut costs by providing its busy area managers with full hybrid cars. The company now runs a fleet of almost 100 vehicles, 70 of which are Toyota Prius vehicles. It started using the Prius in 2007, and is now in the middle of switching from second- to third-generation models.

The company, based in Surrey has been in operation for 50 years now. Its core business is in the retail sector, with clients including bluechip companies such as Tesco, Sainsbury's, New Look and Budgens. TC Cleaning Services employs more than 4,000 staff at some 1,200 sites across the UK, and the Toyota hybrids are used by the managers who oversee the contracts. Area managers drive Prius T3 models, while regional managers get the top-of-the-range T-Spirits with leather trim inside.

"Prius has proved cost-efficient for the company, because both our fuel and maintenance costs have decreased," says Fleet Administrator Lynne Davies. “Even for an expanding fleet like ours in the midst of fuel rises, the cars have held their own very nicely. It's only in the past nine months with such steep rises in petrol prices that costs have been pushed up. We have trackers in the vehicles, so it's relatively easy to calculate the savings since we started to feed Prius in - and the difference is marked.”

The Prius makes sense not only because its less costly to tax, but also because it offers a much larger interior than other cars in the segment. For those execs driving into London, lack of congestion-charging meant another significant saving.