News - Page 2155

ANGRY fleet chiefs have blasted the Government's long-awaited road safety strategy as 'disappointing' and 'wishy washy' for its failure to endorse company car driver training. The document - 'Tomorrow's Roads - Safer For Everyone' - had been expected to crackdown hard on fleets' poor safety record. But in an apparent U-turn the Government failed to single out the so called 'complacent fleet managers' it had promised to hit.

THE Conservatives have clashed with the Government over the importance driver training plays in reducing company car accidents. Anne McIntosh, Conservative MP for the Vale of York and member of the environment, transport and regions select committee and the transport sub-committee, has hit out against the Government's U-turn on training in its newly launched road safety strategy, 'Tomorrow's Roads - Safer For Everyone'.

BMW remains confident that a £152 million Government subsidy for its Longbridge Rover plant will get European Union approval by June this year. This would give the green light to production of the R30 family of medium sized cars alongside the new Mini in 2002/3.

COMPANIES are coming under a barrage of criticism from the Government for their 'woeful lack of interest' in plans to reduce reliance on the car. Local authorities, NHS trusts and a few private firms are environmentally-conscious and financially responsible for travel plans for their workers, but most companies are not taking action, according to Government and environmental associations.

LEADING companies already provide a guide for fleets on introducing green travel plans. They include AstraZeneca Pharmaceutical and South Derbyshire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust which won the Association for Commuter Transport Commuter Initiative Award.

HYDROGEN is the ultimate fuel of the future, but it will be more than a decade before millions of vehicles around the world are powered by the zero emission fuel. In the meantime General Motors, the world's largest vehicle manufacturer, is pursuing alternative fuel technology on all fronts trialling hydrogen fuel cell, electric, gas and hybrid vehicles as well as continuing the battle to improve the cleanliness and fuel efficiency of both petrol and diesel engines.

ADVANCED technology specialists are claiming to have paved the way for General Motors to put a remarkable new super-economy family car into production. Capable of operating at an astonishing 94mpg, the five-seater could be on sale in four years' time.

FLEETS may be able to buy one vehicle and just as they now choose trim level and colour, they may also be able to choose the kind of propulsion system they want. At last year's Tokyo Motor Show, General Motor's Chevrolet division launched the Triax, which was also in Detroit, which can be powered by a traditional internal combustion engine, electric battery or electric/petrol power - the choice is yours.

GENERAL Motors revealed a glimpse of motoring in the new millennium with the Detroit unveiling of a hydrogen fuel cell-powered Precept concept car. The hi-tech Precept FCEV combines electric battery and hydrogen fuel cell technology.

GREEN travel plans and continuing cuts in vehicle emissions will play a key part in the UK achieving tough new climate-change goals, deputy prime minister John Prescott said this week. In publishing a consultation document 'Climate Change: Draft UK Programme', Prescott set out how the UK planned to respond to the December 1997 Kyoto Protocol to which it contributed.

BMW (UK) has launched a national interactive business television network for its dealerships to cut down on mileage covered by staff. Instead of executives at the firm's 156 UK dealerships all travelling to meetings with each other, they can now conduct business immediately through the hi-tech system, which uses BT analogue telephone lines, satellite and a receiver station.

LEX Vehicle Leasing has reduced the CO2 emissions per mile of its own fleet of 210 company cars by 5% since adopting a new environmental policy a year ago. The company is aiming to reduce CO2 emissions from its staff car fleet by 33% by the year 2008 by changing its car policy and introducing environmental initiatives to reduce vehicle use.

HULL City Council is investigating adding a fuel cell vehicle to its fleet as part of its commitment to environmental protection.

NISSAN UK has given a helping hand to engineers building an environmentally-friendly electric vehicle, capable of more than 60mph.

BP has announced its most successful year yet for its fuel cards divisions, with volume growth above 20% for the third year running.

THE Lord Mayor of Swansea has officially opened a new AutoGas refuelling station installed by British Gas at the council's Pipehouse Wharf depot.

BUSES and trains prove no match in terms of cost or convenience for the go-anywhere, anytime appeal of the company car, according to research by PHH Vehicle Management.

PHH Vehicle Management has won a phased take-over contract to manage Black and Decker's 250-strong fleet.

MANCHESTER-based industrial products distributor BSL has signed an 18-month supply deal with Vauxhall for field staff cars and vans. The company has a high proportion of Peugeots on its 400-strong fleet, which operates a four-year/100,000-mile replacement cycle.

CW LEASE UK has won a deal to become the sole supplier to Boise Cascade, which operates a 53 vehicles and vans. The vehicles are being supplied to the UK office products subsidiary of the US-based corporation on a four-year finance lease with full maintenance and accident management.

THE future of company car tax has been thrown into chaos amid claims from the boss of Britain's biggest car manufacturer that the Competition Commission will be calling for the scrapping of recommended retail list prices in its forthcoming New Cars Inquiry report. The claim comes from Ian McAllister, chairman and managing director of Ford of Britain, who believes the persistent attention paid by the inquiry to manufacturer recommended retail prices strongly suggests that the Commission will take an abolition line on RRPs.

A TOP adviser to the Government on road safety claims fleets don't need to adopt compulsory driver training, despite company car drivers being twice as likely as private motorists to kill or be killed in a road accident. Robert Gifford, executive director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety, said measures outlined in the Government's own road safety strategy, along with passive risk management procedures and new accident claims management rules for fleets introduced last April as a result of the Woolf Reforms, were enough to meet the target of cutting Britain's annual road death toll of 3,500 by 40% in 10 years.

MORE than 75% of fleet chiefs say Fleet Show 2000 - Europe's flagship fleet event - is the 'must attend' fleet event of the year, according to a new survey. With less than four weeks to go until the three-day Fleet Show opens on April 4 at the NEC, Birmingham, a survey of 150 fleet managers who attended the 1999 show reveals they will attend this year's event.

THE imposition of Health and Safety at Work legislation on the working practices of fleet managers will not happen for at least a year. But there are plenty of measures fleets can be taking now to prepare themselves for that day when an occupational highway code arrives on their desks, backed by the power to fine and imprison fleet managers and company bosses.

A NEW 10-year target to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured in road accidents by 40% to about 17,500 a year has been set by the Government in its new road safety strategy. In acknowledging that Great Britain has the best road safety record in Europe, after Sweden, the Government recognises its record for child road safety is 'relatively poor' and therefore in its road safety strategy sets a new target of reducing road-related child deaths and injuries by 50%.

THE Government's road safety strategy is big on talk and small on direct action. None of the threatened shocks to the fleet industry which safety campaigners had long been campaigning for in an attempt to cut the unacceptably high accident rates among company car drivers have materialised. The 84-page document 'Tomorrow's roads; safer for everyone has taken two years to produce since a review of Government speed policy launched at the end of 1998, and concentrates on the need for further debate.

THE Government has performed a U-turn in its determination to hit 'crash-happy' firms hard in its plans to improve the safety of company car and van drivers. Successively in the last few months the Government has expressed 'growing concern' at the frequency of accidents involving at-work drivers and Lord Whitty, road safety minister, warned after a damning attack on fleets' safety that complacent fleet managers would be singled out in the road safety strategy.

FLEET managers say they are prepared for the extra workload the extension of health and safety at work legislation looks likely to impose on them. One of the cornerstones of the Government's road safety strategy is the establishment of an inter-agency task group to look at the ways in which the safety management of working practices can be applied to the company car.

LDV has signed an order worth £9 million at showroom prices to supply 500 3.5-tonne Hi-Loader Convoys for use at Parcelforce Worldwide's 100 delivery hubs across the UK.

GE Capital Fleet Services has won the first Whitbread Facilities Management Group Supplier of the Year Award. GECFS was selected after a survey of more than 500 Whitbread drivers who chose the company for its 'consistently high quality of service, calibre of staff and its range of innovative products and services'.