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Fleet Vehicle Key Solutions
Shrewsbury
How many working keys does your fleet actually have? Almost nobody knows, and that is the risk. William Church runs fleet vehicle key solutions from Shrewsbury: count the keys, fix the one-key vehicles, delete the keys that left with old drivers, and book the work as one visit.
Fleet Key Quote
Send Your Vehicle List
Send the registrations and how many working keys each vehicle has. Say which ones cannot be off the road, and where they are kept.
Goes straight to William · mobile service · no fee to ask
The Same Person Every Time
Fleet work rewards continuity. Someone has to remember which vans were done last year and which are still on one key. William Church answers the phone, quotes the job and does the work, so that history stays in one place instead of being lost between call centres. Key management works best when one person owns it.
He is DBS checked and carries £1 million of public liability cover, which most depots ask to see before anyone works on site. WAC is SERMI registered too. That is the Europe-wide scheme letting approved independents reach manufacturer security data.
The service is mobile. Vehicles are keyed where they park, so nothing comes off the rota to sit at a workshop waiting its turn.
Fleet Key Risk Builds Up Quietly
No fleet decides to run on single keys. It happens slowly. A van arrives with two keys and one goes missing. A driver leaves and nobody asks for the key back. A replacement vehicle comes in with one key and stays that way for three years. None of it shows up until a van will not start.
A fleet key review fixes that by writing it down. Which vehicle has how many working keys, who holds them, and which vehicles cannot afford a day off the road. Once that list exists, the work sorts itself into an order and the spend can be planned instead of rushed.
The worst case is a vehicle where every key has gone. That becomes an all keys lost job, where the code is read from the vehicle rather than copied. It costs more and takes longer than the spare would have.
What Fleet Key Work Actually Covers
Most fleets start with the review, because it turns a vague worry into a list. The rest follows the order that list sets.
Fleet Key Review
A written list of every vehicle, how many working keys it has, and which ones are the real risk.
Planned Spare Keys
Second keys cut while the first still works. This is the cheap end of everything else on this page.
Lost Fleet Keys
A replacement cut and coded at the yard, so the vehicle is back on the rota the same day.
Key Programming
Transponders and remotes coded to the vehicle, across car, van and heavy vehicle systems.
Deleting Old Keys
Keys held by former drivers removed from the immobiliser, so they no longer start anything.
One Van, One Visit, Several Vehicles
A mixed fleet is the normal case. Every business vehicle is different, and vans, company cars and the odd tipper rarely share one key system, so a single programming tool will not clear the yard. William carries seven platforms plus the cutting gear, which is what lets a batch of different vehicles be finished in one attendance.
Security rollouts fit the same pattern. Trackers and a dash cam installation can be worked through vehicle by vehicle on the same visits. Background on the data access scheme sits at Official SERMI UK information.
Cut and coded while the original still works, which is the cheapest version of every job here.
For vehicles where a key is already gone. Priced per vehicle and done at the yard.
Transponder and remote programming across car, van and heavy vehicle systems. Seven platforms travel in the van.
Old and missing keys removed from the immobiliser, so a departed driver's key starts nothing.
Thatcham S5 and S7 units fitted across a set of vehicles, with the monitoring explained before you commit.
Front and rear recording with parking mode, rolled out vehicle by vehicle in the same visits.
Transit, Sprinter, Vivaro, Crafter and the company cars that sit alongside them.
Vehicles are keyed where they park. Nothing leaves the rota to wait at a workshop.
The Spare Key Is The Cheap Part
Downtime is what makes this worth doing, and it has been measured. Mercedes-Benz Vans asked 500 senior decision makers. A vehicle off the road costs a typical UK firm £1,172 a day. In manufacturing it reached £2,161. In construction it was £1,464. The typical fleet lost more than six days to disruption across the year.
The RAC asked 500 businesses running 3.5 tonne vans up to 44 tonne HGVs. They put a vehicle off the road at up to £300 a day and £7,200 a year. It also found 41% of firms lose a vehicle to the roadside at least twice a month. Set against that, a spare key at trade prices is a rounding error.
Theft is the other half. A Volkswagen survey of 1,000 van drivers found 28% had tools stolen in 2024, up from 19%, with an average haul of £2,433 and 3.97 days of downtime after it. Where that risk is real, an anti-theft security upgrade belongs in the same plan.
How Fleet Key Work Is Organised
Send the list
Registrations, and how many working keys each vehicle currently has.
Rank the risk
One-key and business critical vehicles go to the top of the list.
Check support
William confirms which vehicles are supported and prices each one.
Work the yard
Vehicles are keyed in batches, so one visit covers several at once.
Update the list
You get the position back in writing, with what is left to do.
Five Reasons Fleets Call
Mixed Key Counts
Some vehicles have two keys and some have one. The single-key ones get done first.
Driver Leaves
The key goes with them. Deleting it matters more than cutting a new one.
New Vehicles Arrive
They usually come with one key. Adding the spare now is cheaper than adding it later.
Tracker Rollout
Several vehicles need S5 or S7 units. They get fitted alongside the key work.
Camera Rollout
Dash cams fitted across the fleet in the same visits, rather than a separate trip each.
What Changes The Price Per Vehicle
The key type sets the floor. The 2026 Checkatrade cost guide puts a transponder key at £240. A keyless entry key is £280 and a remote key is £320. The UK average across all types is £240. Those are national trade averages rather than WAC quotes.
Two things move the number for a fleet. Booking several vehicles into one visit brings the cost per vehicle down, because the travel is shared. And a planned spare always costs less than the same key ordered in a hurry, because the code is copied rather than read from the vehicle.
Send the list and you get a price per vehicle before anyone travels, so the whole programme can be budgeted. Fuller figures by key type sit on the car key replacement cost page.
Related Services and Next Steps
This page is for several vehicles handled as one plan. A single vehicle with a single problem sits better on one of these.
Commercial Vehicle Locksmith
Use this page for a one-off job on a lorry, tipper, minibus or other larger vehicle.
View Service →Van Locksmith Services
Use this page when a single van needs a key, rather than a set of vehicles planned together.
View Service →Spare Car Keys
Use this page for a second key on one car, made while the first one still works.
View Service →Vehicle Tracking Systems
Use this page when the tracker category and the monitoring are what you need explained.
View Service →Areas William Covers From Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury is the base, and the van travels out across Shropshire, Powys and the West Midlands. Fleets are keyed at the depot or the yard, wherever the vehicles sit overnight. Each town below has a page of its own.
Fleet Vehicle Key FAQs
What is a fleet key review?
How many keys should each fleet vehicle have?
Can a key be deleted when a driver leaves?
Can several vehicles be keyed in one visit?
How much does a fleet spare key cost?
What does a vehicle off the road actually cost?
Can trackers and dash cams be fitted across a fleet?
What information should we send to get started?
Fleet Vehicle Key Solutions Shrewsbury
Send William Your Vehicle List
Send the registrations and the working key count for each one. You get a price per vehicle and an order of work before anyone travels.