GE Capital identified $102 million (€76 million) of total cost savings for its European fleet customers in 2009 by examining every element of the fleet mix, from contract extensions to CO₂ emissions. The saving opportunities were created by GE Capital’s Key Solutions team – a fleet consultancy service focused on helping drive down the cost of running car fleets.

Implementation of identified savings was particularly strong amongst GE Capital’s Pan-European customer base where an estimated 47% of savings identified for customers were already implemented by the end of 2009.

“Using our experience and heritage in the fleet industry, we have created an opportunity to take $100 million cost out of our customers’ total fleet cost, freeing up capital to invest in their core business and use in their day to day operations,” said Peter Stroem, Pan-European Fleet Commercial Leader at GE Capital. “For our pan-European customers almost 50% of those savings have already been implemented, which shows just how important this consultancy service is in today’s challenging economic environment. It should be possible for all companies to reduce fleet cost, but not lower their quality of service.”

In descending order, the areas of highest cost savings identified during the year include:

• Contract optimisation analysis ($31 million/€22.5m): Driven by reviewing contract extension opportunities and advising on the most cost effective model
• Car choice criteria ($12 million/€8.8m): Driven by GE Capital’s ranking of cars in Total Cost of Ownership terms across key auto types
• Car sourcing advice ($10.4million/€7.5m): Driven by OEM and dealer concentration
• CO₂ capping policy implementation ($9.8 million/€7.0m): Driven by insight into fuel consumption costs and the advice on tax issues relating to C0₂ emissions

About GE Capital

GE Capital is a leading provider of specialist finance throughout the EMEA region, providing a wide range of solutions including: accounts receivable management, inventory finance, ABL, cross-border financing, leveraged finance, European leasing/vendor finance and fleet management. GE Capital focuses on sectors where it can share GE's 130+ year heritage with customers - energy, healthcare, media, transportation and industrial - and has a major footprint in EMEA, including an exciting $8 billion commercial finance JV planned with Mubadala in Abu Dhabi.