More police officers in the U.K. will be behind the wheels of General Motors products after Vauxhall Motors Special Vehicles becomes the country’s biggest supplier of low and intermediate police vehicles, winning contracts for six police regions.
Contracts from a tender process initiated by the National Policing Improvement Agency mean 37 of the U.K.’s 52 police authorities will buy Vauxhall vehicles.
This involves delivery of about 7,000 cars and vans over the next four years, including the Corsa, Astra, Insignia, Astravan, Combo, Vivaro and Movano.
Vauxhall also is working with the Association of Chief Police Officers’ Intelligent Transportations Systems Working Group on single-vehicle architecture. This will provide standardized specifications allowing all auto makers and suppliers to produce common wiring for equipment and connection points.
SVA will allow plug-and-play of electronics, reducing the time needed for equipping and decommissioning vehicles.
All Vauxhall Special Vehicles orders are manufactured in-house at the auto maker’s purpose-built facility in Millbrook, Bedfordshire. The process is kept under tight control, with delivery the only aspect of the service that is outsourced.
The General Motors subsidiary has supplied more than 7,000 vehicles to U.K. police, fire and ambulance services since in-house production began in 2007.
Vauxhall says its purchase prices are highly competitive and particularly important as police budgets are cut. The Vauxhall warranty up to 100,000 miles (160,000 km) also is attractive for police fleets.
A turnkey vehicle-solution initiative from Vauxhall Special Vehicles, initially offered on the Astra in 2008, provides rapid, cost-effective turnaround of replacement vehicles when a quick response is needed to put emergency services back into action.
Newly launched turnkey models include a prison-cell-equipped Combo and a Movano Protected Support Unit.
With support to police fleets an important consideration in the tender process, Vauxhall has appointed two dedicated customer-care district managers.
The list of the six police regions and the 37 police authorities for which tenders have been won includes:
- Chiltern Transport Consortium – Thames Valley, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Civil Nuclear Constabulary, South East Special Operations and Counter Terrorism Units.
- North East – Cleveland, Northumbria, Durham, West Yorkshire, North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Humberside.
- East and West Midlands – West Mercia, West Midlands, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Leicestershire.
- Scotland – Northern Grampian, Tayside, Central, Strathclyde, Dumfries and Galloway, Lothian and Borders, Fife.
- South West – Devon and Cornwall, Avon and Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire.
- North West – Merseyside, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Cheshire.
