LONDON, UK — U.S. fleet management provider Maximus launched in the UK on February 10, calling it the ‘Gateway to Europe,’ according to the Web site, www.fleetnewsnet.co.uk. It hopes to capitalize on the drive for fuel savings. The group says its £320m turnover makes it the world’s leader for fleet management controls and wants to grow sales to more than £500m within five years. According to Maximus, its FuelFocus system is unique, giving fleet operators the chance to integrate all aspects of vehicle use, fuel economy, refueling and servicing. FuelFocus uses wireless automated fuelling (WAF). Computer links between the vehicle and fuel pump hose can provide automatic checks on the volume and type of fuel used. Joe Basile, Maximus fuelling technologies vice president, said at the London launch that a guide price for the installation/set-up cost of a four-pump system would be around £5,000 or £6,000, with each vehicle’s on-board computer costing around £65. Basile said FuelFocus works best when installed in tandem with its FleetFocus management system. This offers fleet companies the chance to hold all data relating to a vehicle on a single database, speeding operations and cutting costs. Maximus says it already has major contracts with Royal Mail and TNT, and that its systems are widely used in the U.S. It has improved the technology since the system was introduced 15 years ago. Because a fleet car’s Maximus computer needs to relate to a fuel hose, the system is intended for use by companies whose vehicles refuel at base or the same point elsewhere. Martin Greaves, Maximus UK managing director, said: ‘We are more likely to sell it to local authorities which have fuel tanks at depots than to companies running fleet cars. It would be possible for data relating to fleet car drivers’ journeys and refueling stops to be loaded into the system later. That is far from ideal and we are looking at automatic links from credit card transactions. In the U.S., we have reduced fuel bills by up to 15 percent and UK fleet companies might want to share installation costs at a network of shared, specified filling stations.’