News - Page 2131

FIRST National Vehicle Holdings, which operates about 50,000 vehicles, has acquired for an undisclosed sum the 1,300-strong contract hire fleet of Brooklyn Vehicle Contracts, a subsidiary of the Redditch-based Brooklyn Motor Group.

LEX Vehicle Leasing has created a one number solution for all its motoring services (08705 585 585) after a company survey revealed 82% of customers preferred to have one number through which they could contact and receive the services they require.

TWO new cut-price 'lifestyle' models have been added to Mitsubishi's compact Shogun Pinin range. Attivo and Vivo have extras worth more than £1,500 at no additional cost over the GLX and GLS on which they are based.

BP cleaner unleaded petrol was launched in London on Monday and will be available at all of the company's 164 service stations within the M25.

VAUXHALL'S seven-seater compact MPV, Zafira, is to be added to the manufacturer's internet-only sales catalogue. The 1.6-litre petrol engined Zafira.com will be available online from mid-July for £13,500 on-the-road.

NEW proposals from the European Commission have increased the likelihood of European fleets being forced to show leased vehicles on their balance sheets.

FLEETS face a 17% increase in accident repair costs across Europe over the next five years, according to a new report. 'The Car Body Repair Market in North West Europe' studied the vehicle repair market in Germany,

FORD is focusing on its residual values across Europe as a key element in an international brand-building exercise.

DAIMLERCHRYSLER Services (debis) has ventured into Israel for the first time to offer automotive financial services for cars and commercial vehicles.

GE Capital Fleet Services has unveiled a suite of three new internet-based fleet services.

FLEET sales will represent more than one third of Toyota's European business by 2005, according to Juan Jose Diaz Ruiz, executive vice-president, Toyota Motor Europe Marketing and Engineering. '

FOUR of the UK's largest contract hire firms, between them responsible for more than 200,000 cars, are helping to develop new internet technology that could radically improve communications between leasing companies and their suppliers and lead to major fleet costs savings.

TRADE and Industry Secretary Stephen Byers has ordered a review into whether his and other Government departments should be more patriotic in their car choices.

ANGUS Gray has been named Rover Group corporate sales director, taking up Trevor Houghton-Berry's post. A long-serving Rover regional fleet sales man, Gray reports to former MG sales chief Guy Pigounakis, who has become the group's commercial director.

PLANS for all-new vehicles - despite warnings to suppliers that production could be halved at Longbridge - will be on Rover Group drawing boards from August following the appointment of Rolls-Royce engineering chief Rob Oldaker as its product development director.

A SUSSEX police initiative that informs employers when fleet drivers commit traffic offences committed by their company drivers is gaining widespread interest from other forces.

SHADOW Secretary of State for Health, Dr Liam Fox MP, has joined with the RAC Foundation to call for a 'traffic light' warning system on all over-the-counter drugs so that fleet drivers know which pose a driving hazard.

FAILURE by a company to manage road risk effectively will become as socially unacceptable as drink driving in five years, the RAC claims.

A LEADING industry academic is calling for random testing to be imposed on British fleet drivers to hammer home the importance of fleet safety.

FLEET operators' fears of falling foul of health and safety legislation and the need to reduce operating costs are resulting in a surge of driver training.

FLEETS are being warned they face prosecution if caught employing driver training companies that do not use Government-approved instructors.

ROCKETING fuel bills look set to be pushed further skyward as fuel companies seek to recoup the multi-million pound cost of converting pumps to register prices above 99.9p a litre.

PRIME Minister Tony Blair says he understands the problems of rocketing fuel prices but says the alternatives are fewer nurses, schools starved of investment and less police.

FLEET managers of utility firms, potentially wielding the biggest power in influencing the fuel pricing debate because of the millions they spend every year on petrol and diesel, say the need to maintain public services means they are unable to back the forthcoming 'boycott the pumps' day.

A £100 million hole could be blown in the Government's finances as more than 100,000 company car drivers take up cash- for-car schemes, a leading professional services firm is predicting. PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates that 130,000 company car drivers could sign up to tax-efficient structured personal contract purchase schemes in the next few years. With the average driver incurring a tax charge of about £880 a year, this would starve the Inland Revenue of £114 million a year.

GENERAL Motors - the world's largest motor manufacturer - is planning to launch a hydrogen-fuelled demonstration car fleet to help win customer acceptance for the 'fuel of the future'. Depot-based fleets and public utilities are likely to be the first operators of 'tomorrow's vehicles'.

ACCIDENT management companies could be putting fleets at risk of soaring insurance costs by taking up to two months to inform insurers when a fleet driver has an accident, according to a leading insurance firm.

PHH claims to have cracked one of the most awkward problems in fleet by finding a simple solution to separating and recording drivers' business and private mileage. The company's just-launched Mileage Capture System still relies on driver input, but rather than having to jot down figures on scraps of paper and fill in forms, PHH fuelcard holders telephone a dedicated line and use their phone's numeric keypad to record private miles. From the use of the fuelcard, PHH holds individual drivers' spend data and calculates the amount the driver owes, using the actual cost per mile. The exact amount for the private fuel used can then be deducted from salary at source by the employer.

THE Metropolitan Police has resolved the dispute with the Venson Group over its outsourced vehicle servicing and maintenance contract, which saw a quarter of the force's vehicles off the road every day needing repairs. Problems surfaced with the seven-year £53 million contract in March when the police launched an inquiry into the quality of maintenance of its 3,500-vehicle fleet after officers raised safety concerns.