A TOTAL of 116 companies including 22 manufacturers have so far confirmed they will attend this year's Fleet Motor Show and new independent research commissioned by Nissan Fleet reveals that from a sample of 657 people who visited last year's show, 559 or 85% found it either 'very useful' or 'useful'.

Simultaneously Norman Donkin, secretary general of the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association, which is backing the show for the fourth consecutive year, said: 'I cannot see how anybody concerned with the cost efficient running of vehicles can afford to miss the major fleet event of the year. Whilst there are other ride and drive events, only the Fleet Motor Show has the vast range of ancillary products and services that nowadays support the industry.'

This week three of the UK's top four fleet manufacturers - Ford, Rover and Peugeot - said they would not be attending the 1997 event, to be held at Silverstone from April 29-May 2. And, as Fleet News went to press, it was expected that Vauxhall would also pull out.

The leading manufacturers have decided not to attend the show at a time when the fleet dominance of Ford, Vauxhall and Rover is declining. In 1992 the three leading players dominated the UK fleet market with a 72.48% market share. Today that share has dropped to 51.5%, although Peugeot's market share has increased to 9.23% from 7.45%. Nevertheless the decline of the 'big three' has opened the fleet door for other manufacturers which have seen their fleet volumes rapidly increase.

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