I can confirm the dire fleet position. I purchase the fleet cars for my firm, its basically the same as Motability with fewer cars available, long lead times – up to and over 12 months. No one knows when things will return to normal & pricing is volatile.
We ended up extending some of our leases for 2 years, an easy decision as the vehicles have done minimal mileage over the Covid lockdowns so are well below their usual limits.
We’ve also resurrected a couple of our older pick-ups (owned, not leased) that were passed on to our motor vehicle training centres and put them back on the road to help out as new vans in particular are like hens teeth. This included replacing the back axle assembly of a Ford Ranger – thankfully done in house so just the parts from the breakers to pay for.
In life, it's not who you know that's important, it's how your wife found out.