The South London-based firm – which runs a fleet of 85 vans, most car-derived models – says it had been having problems with its unnamed previous supplier, and now plans to become an all-Mercedes-Benz operation.
Most of the vans supplied to date by dealer Sparshatts of Kent have been Long and Extra-long Citan 109 CDIs, but Chequers is also running six mid-sized Vito 113 CDI Longs and a pair of larger Sprinters.
Most of its Citans have been allocated to mobile cleaners – Chequers employs more than 40 who, between them, clean 2,000 staircases in blocks of flats every week.
The bigger Vito vans, meanwhile, are used by window cleaning teams who use water fed pole systems, while the Sprinters are assigned to the company's drainage division.
Chairman Gary Jeal says that future upgrades to Mercedes-Benz vehicles will go to staff working for the firm's school cleaning, office & commercial, and grounds maintenance departments.
"At the time we bought our first Sprinter, Mercedes-Benz did not offer a small van, but that all changed with the launch of the Citan," comments Jeal.
"Sparshatts' sales executive Peter Corry left one with us so we tried it on four or five rounds and it really did the business, particularly in terms of fuel consumption," he continues.
"The returns were up to a third better than we'd been getting from our previous car-derived vans, which was a revelation."
Jeal says that as more Citans have been added to the fleet, so running costs have come down, "with the result that we cut our annual fuel bill by 25% last year".
Chequers' Mercedes-Benz Vans are the subject of a Service Care agreement, under which all labour, parts and lubricants required in routine servicing by Croydon-based Mercedes-Benz agent SG Smith are covered by a single, fixed monthly payment.
"The maintenance package is competitively priced and allows us to budget with confidence," explains Jeal. "So as far as we're concerned, everything with Mercedes-Benz is spot on."