News - Page 2150

THE future of personal leasing schemes is under threat as the Budget has made the company car more attractive to most drivers - but it still has a future in fleet, the Budget Briefing heard. Personal leasing schemes transfer ownership of the vehicle to the employee, using savings on company car tax to pay for the vehicle. But part of the income stream that ensures the driver is not out of pocket by abandoning their company car is the Fixed Profit Car Scheme.

EXCLUSIVE research by Fleet News shows fleet managers need to investigate the case of every driver receiving free fuel for private mileage to determine the value of the perk. First the average economy of each vehicle must be checked and secondly, the price of fuel is calculated, for which we have used the average figures printed each week in the.

THE Government's commitment to reduce carbon dioxide emissions could be reinforced by a new European monitoring scheme. The Conciliation Committee (a joint body between the European Parliament and European Council) has announced a CO2 monitoring scheme. If it receives the approval of the European Parliament and Council, it will force member states to measure the effectiveness of European strategies to cut emissions of greenhouse gases.

SIMPLE calculations show the extent to which the new CO2-based company car tax system penalises high mileage drivers, the event heard. For example, an engineer covering more than 18,000 miles in a Ford.

FLEETS must continue to monitor business miles after 2002 so they can keep an accurate measure of how the fleet is operating, including vital checks on average fuel consumption. John Whiting, tax partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said fleets also had to review their purchasing policy immediately and look at the way they collected data.

A QUESTION mark could hang over the future of high value, large engined cars on fleet choice lists under the new CO2-based company car tax regime, the event heard.

FLEETS have hit back at accusations from BMW chairman Joachim Milberg that they should share the blame for its failure to make Rover a success.

BMW has revealed it held talks with Toyota, Ford, Vauxhall and Volkswagen on the sale of Rover Cars before striking a deal with Alchemy Partners. The admission was made by Werner Samann, Rover chairman and chief executive, who was giving evidence to the House of Commons trade and industry select committee.

RESIDUAL value experts believe BMW's sale of Rover has hit future residual values. However, CAP Motor Research and Glass's Glass's Guide are divided about the extent of damage to the resale value of cars, in particular the Rover 75. The verdicts come two weeks after the two organisations claimed residual values would not be hit.

FLEETS are being urged not to buy BMW cars for a year in protest of the German firm's sell-off of Rover Cars. John Caudwell, chairman and chief executive of communications group the Caudwell Group, has launched a campaign to urge the British car buyer to 'support the Rover workforce'.

ROVER'S poor performance pushed the BMW Group into the red to the tune of £1.79 billion in the last financial year. The group would have been in profit, before tax, to the tune of £677 million - but this was dented by Rover losses of £731 million plus and an 'exceptional charge' relating to Rover's sale of £1.92 billion.

OPENING day attendance at Fleet Show 2000 surpassed last year's 2,500 first day attendance, said show director Chris Lester.

FALLING residual values, coupled with strong competition which has kept rental rates down, have contributed to undermine the profitability of rental companies, although their combined fleets have topped the two-million vehicle mark for the first time. Those are the conclusions of the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association's 'Industry Review' which was launched at The Fleet Show.

THE Government has been blasted for investing 'not enough' in the UK's transport infrastructure, which has been 'grossly neglected for more than 40 years', according to British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association chairman Simon Kerr. He said the Government's Budget announcement of £280 million for investment in roads and public transport was scandalous.

RENTAL fleets are paying the highest prices in Europe for vehicles - despite anticipated Competition Commission criticism that huge discounts to rental fleets are responsible for 'Rip-Off Britain'. And the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association has launched a scathing attack on manufacturers in its new 'Industry Review', saying they were to blame for residual value chaos in the nearly-new car market prompting claims that 'the industry overall is losing money'.

THEFT of short term rental vehicles is declining due to a combination of improved in-company rental procedures including staff training and more security features on cars and vans prompting a £2 million saving in the cost of thefts. Although the number of short term rental vehicles stolen last year increased by 96 to 1,611, set against a 19.2% rise in the size of the sector's fleet, the proportion of the fleet 'lost' fell from 0.7% to 0.6%, according to the report.

BUDGET Rent a Car has introduced a £4.50 fee for refuelling end-of-rental cars and vans on top of fixed fuel prices.

MINORPLANET - the manufacturer of vehicle tracking and communication systems in which GE Capital Fleet Services has a stake - has acquired 51% of Firstnet Services for £6 million.

NISSAN Motor (GB) has been awarded a special Benchmark award by BEN - the Motor and Allied Trades' Benevolent Fund.

MITSUBISHI is adding a leather interior to selected editions of its Shogun Pinin, which includes seats and gear lever.

TRAFFIC growth slowed in 1999 compared to the previous year, according to figures produced by the DETR.

INCREASING fleet sales failed to stop Quicks Group reporting a slump in pre-tax profits by almost a third in 1999 to £3.4 million (1998: £5.3 million), despite streamlining its operations and disposing of loss-making car dealerships.

BODYSHOPS will merge and co-operate to a much higher degree than in the past during the next two-three years - mirroring the trend for consolidation which has changed the face of the insurance industry in recent times, it was claimed this week.

A TOYOTA Prius has clocked up 85mpg on mixed urban and motorway driving with a Northern Ireland-based fleet manager at the wheel. The hybrid petrol-electric Prius is on trial with Northern Ireland's biggest listed company, Viridian Group, and was driven by Harold Baird, fleet solutions manager for Open + Direct Fleet Solution, a subsidiary of Viridian. NIE is another Viridian subsidiary and Baird has been evaluating the Prius alongside all-electric and LPG-powered vehicles.

THE Government has announced plans to spend almost £2 billion in the next two years helping local authorities to compile local transport plans. The plans are at the heart of the Government's integrated transport policy designed to reduce traffic congestion, improve road safety and introduce alternatives to the car.

A RADICAL new vehicle number plate system which will be introduced on September 1, 2001 has been unveiled by the Government. The new system is claimed to be 'easier to read and memorise' with number plates composed of a two-letter regional identifier and a two-number age identifier followed by a space and three randomly selected letters.

FLEET managers must embrace telematics technology to help cut down on vehicle running costs or risk being exposed as inefficient and wasteful. The warning came at a conference organised by Lex Vehicle Leasing on the changing face of the company car market.

COMPANY cars will survive the onslaught of the internet and electronic communications, according to a new survey published on Monday.

THE growth in internet shopping has resulted in Tesco ordering 660 specially-built vehicles worth £4.75 million. Bodybuilder JC Payne is building special refrigerated boxes on 220 Volkswagen LT35s and 420 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter chassis. Deliveries of the vans has already begun and will continue until September.

RENAULT is to supply a further 52 Master ambulances to join the existing 61 already on the fleet of the St John Ambulance following a £2 million donation to the brigade from the Mark Master Masons. HRH Prince Michael of Kent, patron of the Mark Master Masons, is shown presenting the £2 million donation to HRH The Duke of Gloucester, the Grand Prior of The Order of St John.