News - Page 2211

THE executive car market is threatened with extinction as customers flock to smaller, higher specification cars with lower running costs, it was claimed this week.

PEUGEOT'S UK managing director, Richard Parham, is to leave the company at the end of the month as the consequence of continuing group-wide reorganisation.

GOVERNMENT claims that its policies towards motoring taxes have 'green' credentials have been attacked by the RAC Foundation in the same week that a £50 reduction in vehicle excise duty for sub-1100cc cars is introduced.

THE Government is considering whether to allow some of the revenue raised from speed camera fines to be returned to local authorities for further road safety enforcement.

ROAD accidents involving company-owned vehicles could be costing UK business a staggering £5billion a year. The bleak picture has been highlighted in surveys by Cambridgeshire County Council and the Corporation of London, with the astronomical costs being blamed on business ignorance of the benefits of effective risk management. Now the Government is being urged to back further research to find the exact cost to business of road accidents.

LOCAL authorities could be forced to run more alternative-fuel vehicles as part of a Government initiative to increase the penetration of green vehicles in urban areas. Transport Minister Glenda Jackson has confirmed that the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions is 'actively considering setting targets for the proportion of low emission vehicles that local authorities should try to achieve in their fleets'.

THE UK's breakdown and recovery market is set for further upheaval following Cendant Corporation's decision to put Green Flag up for sale. Cendant is considering the sale as the third phase of a major re-organisation that has already seen it dispose of its Cendant and PHH fleet and accident management businesses to Avis Rent A Car.

VOLVO has published its new price list in both Sterling and Euros to make international price comparisons more transparent. The dual pricing move - believed to be a UK first among vehicle manufacturers - is part of a pan-European initiative that will see all European Volvo importers price vehicles in both their local currency and the Euro. A spokesman said: 'This helps people to make like-for-like comparisons. We are working towards price harmonisation and our prices are levelling out.'

NISSAN Motor says its recent alliance with Renault could help to reverse its financial downturn after reporting its sixth year of losses out of the last seven. The manufacturer has blamed slow sales in Japan and USA for losses which almost doubled to Yen 27.7billion/£144.7million (1998: Yen 14billion/£73.1million) for the year ending March 31. A senior official said: 'We will strive to establish a solid foundation by accelerating our business reform plan and bringing into full play the benefits of our strategic alliance with Renault.'

DERMOT Kelly has resigned as managing director of Audi UK after just five months at the helm to take up a post with rival Mercedes-Benz UK.

CAFFYNS, the motor dealer, says the arrival of the T-plate and a record level of profit for March is responsible for maintaining pre-tax profits near last year's level despite losing five petrol stations from its network. Pre-tax profits for the year to March 31 were down to £1.86million (1998: £1.91million) and turn-over fell to £151.6million (1998: £162.6million). The shares rose 27.5p to 332.5p.

DAEWOO has appointed Graham Howes as its new head of fleet operations, replacing Stewart Wright who left the company last year. Howes, who was formerly Fiat's fleet operations manager, will take up his new post on June 7 and report to sales director Patrick Farrell.

FLEET managers preparing for the arrival of CO2-based company car tax in 2002 have warned that the system will be plunged into disarray without clearer information from manufacturers, dealers and the Government. They have thrown their weight behind the 'CO2 Confusion: Clear Up Clean Up' campaign launched by sister publication Fleet News last week which calls for carbon dioxide figures to be included as standard in all product information from dealers, and from contract hire companies.

BRITAIN'S No.1 car manufacturer is to publish carbon dioxide emission figures for all its vehicles in all brochures in a bid to help fleet managers and company car drivers select the 'cleanest' company cars.

BANKING giant Lloyds TSB is targeting ex-company car drivers with a new personal car leasing scheme run via its fleet subsidiary. Black Horse Vehicle Management. The 'Gold Service Car Leasing Plan' will initially only be available to Lloyds TSB Gold Service current account holders but the bank believes this group of customers mirrors the medium and high-earning company car drivers who are switching to cash allowances.

LAND Rover has launched a new version of the flagship Range Rover HSE model. The £48,705 dHSE is powered by parent company BMW's 2.5-litre six cylinder turbocharged diesel engine and has been launched due to customer demand last year for a similar limited edition model.

COMPANIES in London have given an almost unanimous thumbs-up to road-user charging plans which would send their fleet running costs soaring by tens of millions of pounds - yet may not fully solve congestion problems. The findings come from business support group London First, which consulted more than 300 members on what is claimed to be the first truly workable road-user charging scheme - the London First Transport Initiative.

MEYER International, parent company of national builder's merchants Jewson, has signed with ABS for the repair of its 1,490-strong car and van fleet. The fleet is managed by an in-house team of 21 from Jewson Transport Centre in Winchester - where all the accident management functions are administered - and, while ABS will handle repairs for the 1,240 company cars and 250 vans, the centre will continue to look after its 1,000 trucks.

PARAGON Car Finance is to merge with Paragon Vehicle Contracts as part of a complete restructuring which will see it re-launched at the end of next month The companies, which are separate operations, are to merge on June 21 with Pawan Pandya becoming managing director. Pandya is currently managing director of Paragon Car Finance, while Richard Koster, former marketing director of Lex Vehicle Leasing, is leaving his role as managing director of Paragon Vehicle Contracts to become marketing director for parent company Paragon Group.

FLEETS have comprehensively failed to respond to Government demands to improve safety standards among drivers. Salary and benefits specialist Alan Jones & Associates, in its report Company Car Survey Report 1999, found that more than 70% of fleets provided no driver training for staff - a situation unchanged since last year.

BY THE turn of the century, world car sales are predicted to be facing a fall to levels last experienced in the 1980s and lead to further consolidation among manufacturers with BMW, Mitsubishi and Peugeot the likely victims of buy-outs. In its sixth annual survey of the global car market, the Economist Intelligence Unit says sales will fall at least 9% in the next two years from 3.3million vehicles to just over 32million in 2000.

ROVER is to be transformed into a 'British BMW' with no plans to sell the Midlands-based manufacturer, says Joachim Milberg, chairman of the UK company's German parent. With the Rover 75 due to go on sale in the UK on June 17, Milberg dismissed rumours and speculation concerning the future of the manufacturer and promised a bright future.

FLEETS are facing an administrative nightmare as a rolling deadline approaches which will see many phone numbers around the country changed. It is only four years since the area codes were last changed - costing UK businesses an estimated £500million in lost calls and administrative changes.

THE UK operations of Mercedes-Benz and Chrysler Jeep Imports are merging to create DaimlerChrysler (UK). The new company will come into effect from January 1 and be led by Paul Halata, managing director of Mercedes-Benz UK.

SOARING demand for Peugeot's common-rail diesel engines has hit the launch date for the new 90bhp Peugeot 306 HDi.

FLEET managers have been given their starkest warning yet that police are prepared to 'get tough' over road safety and prosecute employers if their drivers are involved in accidents. A groundswell of opinion among police forces nationwide means that the role fleet managers play in ensuring drivers are safe behind the wheel is just as important as the behaviour of any driver involved in a crash.

A DRIVE to increase membership at the Association of Car Fleet Operators saw income grow to more than £80,000 last year. The increase of more than 17% over the previous year left the association with a surplus of £21,141, which boosted its coffers to £72,590. ACFO is pushing to increase its membership to 2000 by the year 2000 from its current level of about 700.

A GROUND-breaking scheme to encourage fleets to 'go green' was presented to fleet managers at the Association of Car Fleet Operators annual general meeting and conference. The voluntary Green Fleet Certification Scheme - the latest idea to come from the Government's Cleaner Vehicles Task Force - aims to show that greener fleet management can be good business practice.

PIPEWAY, the West Sussex-based water utility contractor, has purchased 19 Volkswagen medium wheelbase LT35 vans, replacing its existing fleet of Mercedes Sprinter vans. Transport and depot manager George Farrell said the package offered by VW persuaded him to add the vehicles to the company?s 330-strong fleet. ?We wanted to establish a more flexible arrangement for the multi-work vans and Volkswagen came up with the goods.

CONTROVERSIAL plans to introduce graduated Vehicle Excise Duty based on carbon dioxide emissions are in crisis and could collapse without an immediate change of attitude from Government ministers. The Treasury has been warned that, unless firm details on the shape the new system should take are provided almost immediately, the anticipated deadline for introduction of the tax in autumn next year will almost certainly be missed, raising fears the whole scheme could be scrapped altogether.