I HAVE to say, I do like the sound of the Ford BlueService programme that’s been rolled out to Ford customers.
Among its key advantages are Ford Assistance – free breakdown recovery in the UK and Europe for having your Ford serviced every 12 months or 12,500 miles; free accident management; and a free electronic ‘traffic light’ eCHECK car health report.
Ford BlueService is open to all customers.
However, while it sounded good, Ford had clearly labelled the service a retail product.
So did that mean small businesses with a contract hire agreement either through Ford Credit or through another funder would be excluded?
And what about SME small fleets? Would that be the same?
As is often the case, SME firms running company cars fall between the cracks of retail and fleet.
My questions to Ford about BlueService led me to Jon Wellsman, the director of Ford’s customer service division. Jon explained: “No, let me reassure all of your SME readers that Ford BlueService is open to all customers.
“Although I will say that we are developing a bespoke version for Ford’s larger fleet customers – called Ford Fleet BlueService – because there are some elements of BlueService that don’t apply to large fleets.
“But otherwise, whether a Ford customer has a personal contract hire agreement, either with Ford Credit or with another finance provider, or an SME has a small fleet of company cars – again either funded by Ford Credit or through another leasing funder – Ford BlueService applies.”
One of the other benefits of Ford BlueService is that Ford gives away points on the Nectar loyalty scheme.
So not only can you benefit from the free breakdown cover, accident management and eCHECK, with a Ford service Ford is rewarding Nectar holders with two points for every £1 spent.
“Yes, that’s quite a benefit,” agreed Jon. “Last year Ford awarded 350 million Nectar points!”
So if your business runs a Ford, make sure you make the most of Ford BlueService – there’s plenty there to help reduce business car running costs – and boost your Nectar card points at the same time!
Read these business car news stories for more about Ford and servicing:
