Branding changes have been made to some vehicles in the upgrading of the 489 strong fleet of Carmarthenshire Council vehicles.

As new vehicles are acquired to the fleet ranging from 26-tonne refuse vehicles to lightweight electric cars, you will be seeing more of the rebranded vehicles rolled out on roads across the county.

The updating of the council’s considerable fleet will achieve savings of more than half a million pounds over three years.

The council will explore the potential for advertising on the back doors of light commercial vehicles to help boost income in these austere times.

Already 20 property maintenance vehicles have the new livery and some gritters have been refurbished with the rebranding in time for the busy winter period.

The council fleet has been reduced by more than 100 vehicles across the range. The fleet size was 586 in 2010.

The council have also achieved reductions in their plant machinery holdings from 475 to 397 over the same period.

County executive board member for environment transport services, Cllr Hazel Evans, said: These reductions have been achieved through a range of measures such as restructuring of service delivery plans, the introduction of vehicle asset tracking and the removal of underutilised assets.

“Our latest investment within the vehicle fleet, is the replacement of refuse collection vehicles at a cost of £4.35m, which when they arrive in 2016, will bring the very latest in fuel emission technology and spearhead the Councils waste collection strategy for the next five years.”

Carmarthenshire head of transport Stephen Pilliner said: “Investment is important to minimise the life costs of assets. The programme is also underway in other areas of the vehicle fleet.

“This includes our welfare adapted buses for social care and the mobile library service.

“The light commercial vehicle fleet is also in the midst of renewal with around 150 new vehicles in the pipeline for property maintenance, grounds maintenance, and our highways department.

“We are delighted that the renewal of the light commercial fleet is set to deliver on its own, savings in the order of £180k per annum over the next three years

“Fleet efficiencies will extend also to a continued reduction in the council’s vehicle fuel usage which we have seen plummet in recent years.

“We now consume 500,000 litres of road diesel a year fewer than we did in 2010.”

Mr Pilliner said the next challenge was the replacement of the Council’s highway winter maintenance fleet at an anticipated cost, in the region of £2-million.