How East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust Took Back Control of Its Pool Car Keys

East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust runs several acute care facilities, including Eastbourne District General Hospital. To support this vast network, ESHT relies on a dedicated fleet of pool cars managed by the post and courier team, ensuring the efficient, daily transport of medical records, specimens, and essential supplies between all sites. These vehicles are used by staff across the organization. Vehicle keys were kept in a separate parking office, so staff had to request access there, while the transport team logged reservations on a shared calendar that parking staff maintained.

As demand on the fleet grew, the split workflow started to cause real problems. Depending on another department to hand over keys meant recurring admin errors, calendars that fell out of sync, and double-booked vehicles. With no dedicated tracking system and no keys on site, pickups were difficult to coordinate and bookings regularly went wrong.

The Trust introduced Keycafe to centralize fleet access and run key management independently, around the clock. Staff now submit a vehicle request with the dates and times they need. The post and courier team checks availability, assigns a vehicle, and enters the booking into the Keycafe software.

From there, the system sends the user secure pickup and return instructions that only work during their booked period. Staff use a unique code to pick up their assigned keys from the SmartBox and return them to the system when they are done using the vehicle. Throughout this cycle, the post and courier team receives automated notifications tracking the checkout and return process. No one has to be present for a handover, and the department keeps full control of its keys.

Keycafe brought immediate stability to the Trust's pool car operation, and feedback from drivers has been strong: the system is straightforward to use and consistently reliable. Keeping key administration under a single team has reduced scheduling errors and saved staff time on every booking. The results were clear enough that the Trust has since installed a second Keycafe system at another hospital site.

The usage data has proved valuable in its own right. With an accurate, real-time view of how and when keys are being used, management has been able to reassess where fleet vehicles are parked across the campus. The Trust found that Keycafe quickly justified the investment by eliminating administrative errors and reducing the financial risk of lost keys and vehicles.