Toyota hopes to offset last year's slide in fleet registrations by spreading sales across its dealer network and intensifying support through a newly-appointed fleet team.

The previous structure, which relied on 65 specialist fleet dealerships scattered around the UK, left too many open points. Toyota fleet sales tumbled 15.6% last year, to 32,158 units.

The new Toyota Fleet team - 15 area managers and two regional managers - will be headed by national fleet development manager Michael Cole and it will complement dealer sales efforts across the UK, targeting fleets with less than 100 vehicles.

Mark Hall, fleet general manager, called Toyota's model range a “perfect fit” for the sub-100 fleet market, estimated at 850,000 units a year.

“Sooner or later companies look to changing their fleets. I hope by then the Fleet team will have created sufficient awareness in the Toyota brand for them to contact us,” he said.

St Leonards Motors of Bexhill, Surrey, is one of Toyota's 160 'non-fleet' dealers that will benefit from the new structure.

Dealer principal and Toyota national dealer council chairman Ian Wakefield said: “The fleet market is specialised and while those dealers who have invested in serving it can do well, those without resources have suffered by comparison.

“Toyota Fleet has evened out the balance by placing common resources across the entire dealer network.”