News - Page 2186

FLEET managers must beat a path to the boardroom to demand action and help in embracing electronic commerce. E-commerce is a key issue for companies wishing to compete effectively in the new millennium and cost effective fleet management will be a key part of any strategy, delegates at an open day held by FleetNet heard.

VAUXHALL is finally entering the city car sector with the Agila, its version of a joint development project with Suzuki which produced its variant more than two years ago. The five door mini-MPV will go on sale next summer, a year after the Concept A vehicle on which it is based was unveiled on the Vauxhall stand at the Geneva Motor Show.

THE Royal Mail looks set to be one of the first UK fleets to run factory-converted bi-fuel Ford vehicles. It has just completed a two-year trial of LPG and CNG vehicles under operational conditions in conjunction with Ford and fuel supplier BP Amoco.

AN attack on the Government's transport plans was launched by Retail Motor Industry Federation president John Coward at the organisation's annual dinner in London. Coward claimed that Government proposals to introduce new cash-raising schemes such as motorway and city centre tolls and workplace parking charges and 'similar ideas germinating in the fertile minds of civil servants' would have no visible benefit in reducing car use.

THE steady growth of contract hire as UK fleets' favourite method of vehicle finance was eclipsed last year by the rapid gains of finance leasing and fleet management. BVRLA members recorded an 11% increase in contract hire volumes during 1998, but this was eclipsed by the 52.5% increase in finance lease transactions, and 31.5% rise in fleet management.

VAUXHALL is the leading car supplier to both the daily rental and leasing markets, while Ford dominates the light commercial vehicle sectors. British Vehicle Rental & Leasing Association members spent £3.5 billion on 310,000 short term hire cars in 1998, according to the association's 1999 Industry Review.

CUT-THROAT daily rental rates and falling residual values have made profitability the key issue facing the short term rental industry. Over a seven-year period, the price of the average rental transaction (of just over five days) increased from £111 in 1991 to £123.18 in 1998, according to the British Vehicle Rental & Leasing Association's 1999 Industry Review.

THEFT of vehicles from British Vehicle Rental & Leasing Association members has fallen dramatically over the past four years. In 1995 member companies lost 2,293 cars to thieves, while last year the total had declined to 1,305, a 5% improvement on 1997.

ASSOCIATES Fleet Services has bought the 1,000 vehicle strong leasing and fleet management company John Wallwork Group for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition of the Altrincham-based company takes Associates Fleet Services' total fleet size to 12,600 vehicles.

BASILDON-based Toomey Hire & Leasing has bought Skyway Leasing in Chester for about £6 million.

THE Volkswagen Polo Match - initially intended as a summer-only model - is to remain on sale until the end of the year due to sales success. Adding a tilt-slide sunroof to the original specification, prices start at £7,995 on-the-road.

A NEW specialist Mercedes Benz rental firm, City Inter-Rent, is targeting the fleet, contract hire and insurance markets. The firm, based in Wembley, north London, plans to expand to Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester.

MONDIAL Assistance has named Enterprise Rent-a-Car as its new provider of courtesy cars from this month.

WIRELESS communications provider RAM Mobile Data has announced a 22% increase in turnover, with gross profits up by a third in the last year.

MOTOR finance company Singer & Friedlander has launched a specialist taxi finance division to provide finance to taxi dealer customers throughout the UK.

ACOAT Bodyshop Services has added 15 bodyshops in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to its existing network of 107 members in Britain.

BENHER - the voluntary women's fundraising committee of BEN - Motor and Allied Trades Benevolent Fund - raised more than £43,500 from a 'Monte Carlo' evening at the NEC Metropole, Birmingham.

CREDIT hire companies claim the insurance industry is deliberately attempting to kill them off by using technicalities to withhold payment of bills. Some insurers are using a disputed legal ruling for delaying all payments to credit hire firms without real justification, driving up costs and forcing many suppliers to take costly legal action, hire firms claim.

CONFIDENCE is returning to the 4x4 market which only last year threatened to prove a costly option to fleets as residual values fell in what had been one of the strongest market sectors. Manufacturers say last year's downturn, which saw Ford drop the Maverick and Vauxhall axe its Monterey, is now over.

FORMER British Car Contracts managing director Robert Mercer has launched a new company that aims to protect car and van buyers from the 'intimidating showroom and the pushy, commission-based salesman'. Motorlogic is establishing a network of franchisee consultants throughout the UK who will go to customers' homes or offices armed with a laptop computer containing details of 4,000 vehicles.

FORD'S first hybrid-electric family-sized saloon goes on the road this month with an American fleet, the US Department of Energy. The manufacturer claims that the car, codenamed the P2000 LSR, will achieve more than 60mpg from its 1.2-litre, 74bhp direct injection petrol engine.

LEADING fleet industry figures are backing the benefits of diesel after Peugeot UK managing director Tod Evans called for an end to the 'dirty diesel myth'. Last week, Evans claimed the Government was partly responsible for spreading misleading information about diesel fuel and its effect on the environment.

BODYSHOP network Acoat Bodyshop Services is urging companies involved in a landmark agreement on credit hire to drive down costs elsewhere in the industry. The radical agreement between the Association of British Insurers and two of the UK's largest daily rental firms, Enterprise Rent-a-Car and National Car Rental, is aimed at slashing credit hire costs.

ALMOST 100 fleet chiefs from across Europe have so far booked to attend this year's Automotive Congress Europe to be held in Amsterdam on November 23-24. Pan-European fleet, rental and leasing issues will be under the microscope at the event organised by Emap Automotive, publisher of Fleet NewsNet.

PHH Vehicle Management has formed a strategic alliance with its sister company in the United States, PHH Vehicle Management Services, and Sumisho Auto Leasing Corporation in Japan as part of a drive to offer pan-global fleet solutions.

A PARTNERSHIP between the RMI and the London Borough of Barnet will encourage best practice within the motor trade. As part of a series of 30 nationwide Fair Trade initiatives, the scheme aims to improve upon existing standards of service and demonstrate a firm commitment to fair, safe and honest trade.

BODYSHOPS are urging insurance firms and work providers to follow the fleet industry's example and pay fair prices for work and end 'unfair and damaging' pay levels. A campaign to fight for realistic prices in the fleet services sector is gaining momentum amid calls from the two main bodyshop organisations for concerted efforts from their members not to accept 'suicide rates'.

GREEN Flag is expanding its range of motoring assistance services following the acquisition of vehicle inspection and diagnostics business Computa Tune.

THE Automobile Association and Royal Automobile Club are under pressure from rivals to set aside hundreds of millions of pounds to underwrite their roadside repair services. Under the terms of the Insurance Companies Act 1982, the two organisations are exempt from such a requirement.

BMW is for the first time offering fleets a complete one-stop-shop accident management service.