The newly-renamed Driveway Vehicle Solutions is trying to construct on its automotive dealer heritage, in line with its managing director.
The fleet and leasing business formerly often called Pendragon Vehicle Management announced last week that it was rebranding with immediate effect.
Driveway Vehicle Solutions is an element of Lithia UK, which also has a retail network that features 170 Evans Halshaw and Stratstone dealerships, and sits under US parent company Lithia and Driveway.
Phil Wilbraham, managing director of Driveway Vehicle Solutions, tells Automotive Management that the link with the dealers is a vital profit that the business can offer its customers.
He says: “I believe historically, there have been times where we may need all tried to cover that and all operated slightly bit independently. We have really come together as a business, and we actually support one another.
“We actually leant into, where we have got customers which are near our sites, we ensure that that they have relationships with them.
“For other customers, it also helps with things like stock availability for us. We will get our hands on stock really, really quickly, we will get deliveries out to customers quickly.
“That heritage in retail also means after we’re talking to consumer customers, it is not just type of a process for us. That retail is in our DNA. So having the ability to give them a very good customer journey, ensuring that we’re type of prepped for a very good handover for them, where possible we attempt to use our sites for that. Nevertheless it’s all about attempting to use what a customer wants, to fulfill the client where they wish to be met.”
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Rebranding ‘culmination’ of improvements
Wilbraham, who says that there are not any plans to increase Driveway branding to any of the dealers, became MD in 2024, following Lithia and Driveway’s takeover of the previous Pendragon group earlier that yr.
When asked concerning the reasons for the rebranding, Wilbraham says: “I believe for me, it’s to reflect the journey we have been on over the past 18 months. Once I got here in, we’d declined for a couple of years on the bounce, and we wanted to actually unlock the potential of the fleet business inside the wider UK retail network as well.
“What we’ve done is effectively just really, really give attention to customer experience and customer journey and a whole lot of investment into that. And so this is nearly the culmination of that, that we have been putting all those constructing blocks in place, after which that is the ultimate little bit of that switch to Driveway Vehicle Solutions.
“It’s also leaning into the Lithia and Driveway heritage of the broader US parent, and in addition that UK retailer network for us.”
Wilbraham expects existing Pendragon customers to see the rebranding because the continuation of a theme of improvement, somewhat than an abrupt shift, noting achievements akin to an improvement within the business’s Trustpilot rating from 1.3 to 4.2, and 14% fleet growth in 2025.
He says: “The present customers have been feeling that and seeing that. I believe the name change for us is … slightly little bit of a call to motion for purchasers that perhaps knew us previously, and knew the old Pendragon, and what that every one meant, and in the event that they had any engagement with that, or simply had a perception of that out there, this really allows us to point to all of those successes over the past 18 months, and hopefully reengage with either customers which have gone with other people over time. or have not even used us before, but wish to have a have a look at another leasing provider to what they have on the minute.”
Fleet growth planned – but not at any cost
Driveway Vehicle Solutions currently has greater than 12,000 vehicles on its fleet, but Wilbraham’s aspiration is to grow this significantly. Nonetheless, he says this must not come on the expense of customer support.
He says: “If you happen to offered me now 30% fleet growth, but we delivered a foul customer experience, I might turn it down, because, actually, what’s long-term sustainable for us is delivering it through that real customer journey.
“We would like to ensure that that we will scale in a way that we’re still delivering … a extremely good experience, whether you are a industrial vehicle customer, whether you are a non-public consumer, or whether you are a fleet customer.”
Wilbraham says that the aim is for a fleet of greater than 20,000 vehicles, but that there is just not a strict timeline on this, owing to the necessity to ensure the expansion is sustainable.
Discussing the explanations for wanting to grow the fleet, he highlights how leasing providers having greater than 20,000 vehicles could make a difference when it comes to how their size and scale is perceived.
He continues: “We’re in a little bit of an odd position, because we’re under 20,000 vehicles, but when you concentrate on Lithia and Driveway, in totality, across the globe, we sold over 700,000 vehicles last yr.
“So, sometimes people might perceive us, due to where we’re within the rankings, as a smaller leasing company, but we’re a part of such a giant organisation, such a giant infrastructure that we will lean on to support delivering all of it.
“In order that’s really, really worthwhile to us … so that individuals recognise the scale and scale that we have across the UK, but in addition across the globe.”
Salary sacrifice ‘demonstrates customer focus’
A big development for Driveway Vehicle Solutions in 2025 was the launch of a brand new salary sacrifice service. In accordance with Wilbraham, this was designed based on lessons drawn from mistakes made with its predecessor – salary sacrifice having first been launched by the business in 2010.
Wilbraham says: “The unique scheme hadn’t been successful, because we hadn’t considered that customer experience and that customer journey. And so, after we launched it last yr, what did we do? We went back to basics – what does the client want?
“It’s things like, the primary version of it, in case you ordered an electrical vehicle, it didn’t include a charger. They’d have to do this individually. That is not an ideal experience.
“Bundling that in so the client is getting a ‘just add electric’ automotive, you are taking away a whole lot of the stress, a whole lot of the strain, so it’s fully maintained, fully insured, with the charger included. You make it very easy for the client to make the switch.”
Wilbraham is decided for Driveway Vehicle Solutions’ status under its latest name to be built on customer support.
“We would like to grow through customer experience, and we’ll keep talking about that, and we’ll keep putting that at the guts of what we do.”
This Article First Appeared At www.am-online.com
