News - Page 2248

FLEET sales figures fell for the third month in succession in October but the slight fall was overshadowed by the dramatic slump in Rover's performance. Rover's fleet sales fell 45% year-on-year, according to Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders' figures published this week.

THIS year's new car sales will be the highest total for almost a decade but they will fall early in the new millennium as recession strikes, according to new figures from CAP Monitor - Future Residual Values. CAP says new car sales this year will reach 2.2 million - the third highest figure on record after 2.215 million registrations in 1988, 2.3 million in 1989.

THE Confederation of British Industry has called on the Government to follow up its integrated transport white paper with action. Failure to address congestion on British roads is hurting business and costing the country dearly, said John Allan, chairman of the CBI's transport policy committee.

FORD'S UK bosses have given a defensive, but determined response to warnings from the chief executive of the global company that production levels must improve if job losses are to be avoided. The storm clouds over this country's 21 Ford plants were cast by Sir Alex Trotman, Ford chairman and chief executive.

ALTERNATIVE fuels are making significant inroads into Britain's fleets, according to a Fleet News/Calor Autogas survey. But it also shows the scale of the task still facing the Government as it tries to coax more fleets into alternatively-fuelled vehicles.

AN explosion in delivery van sales as a result of the growth of home shopping via the Internet has failed to materialise, according to one of Britain's major commercial vehicle contract hire and fleet management companies. Lex Transfleet, which operates more than 11,000 vehicles, said it had seen little or no evidence to support industry claims that the worldwide web was rapidly changing the nation's shopping habits.

FLEETS are using a wider variety of disposal routes to sell their ex-company cars, according to the 1998 Lex Vehicle Leasing Report on Company Motoring. This has revealed that a quarter of fleets (26%) sell or trade in their cars with their local dealership while 12% sell de-fleeted cars to staff.

BRITISH Car Auctions has joined the Society of Motor Auctions. The Society now represents the majority of UK auction companies - more than 90% of the estimated 1.4 million vehicles sold through auction annually are disposed of by Society members.

THE Government and MPs have been lambasted for showing a 'total lack of understanding' of Britain's £16 billion fleet industry, despite it being seen as the lifeblood of the UK economy. The Association of Car Fleet Operators has rounded on consumer groups and members of the Department of Trade and Industry select committee on new car pricing after it partly blamed fleets for UK car prices being higher than those in Europe.

FLEETS driving the 'smallest and most environmentally-efficient cars' will pay lower vehicle excise duty rates from next year, Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown has announced. The Government has published its long-awaited consultation document on the reform of vehicle excise duty first announced in the March Budget.

UK top 20 contract hire company Highway Vehicle Management is up for sale for the second time in two years. Two options face the Berkshire-based subsidiary of Great Universal Stores, which runs a fleet of almost 20,000 company cars and vans.

COMPANIES will have to apply to their local authority for a licence to allow a certain number of vehicles to be parked on site, under a new Government initiative. This aims to reduce the amount of parking available as a disincentive for employees to drive to work, and to promote the use of public transport alternatives as well as walking and cycling.

VEHICLE excise duty should be replaced by a graduated charge based entirely on a car's emissions. This view is put forward by the Institute for European Environmental Policy in a research paper entitled 'Fuel duties and Greening Vehicle Excise Duty'.

CLEAN fuel vehicles will unlock the door to 'closed' town and city centres in the future and fleets which fail to adopt them could be barred. Transport minister Dr John Reid said low emission zones could be a familiar sight in town centres in the future, with only the cleanest vehicles allowed to enter.

INFLUENTIAL environmental lobby Transport 2000 has called for a complete overhaul of the company car tax regime to penalise high mileage drivers and reduce annual business journeys by 5.4 billion miles a year. In its report 'Winners and Losers: Company Car Tax Reform', Transport 2000 demands the abolition of tax benefits for drivers who cover more than 18,000 business miles a year, which it says directly undermine the Government's aim of traffic reduction.

RENAULT is looking to buy Eastern European car manufacturer Dacia to enable it to launch a new small car range as a different marque. This is largely down to Renault's aim to become more of a prestige brand, with a new Safrane to be launched in a couple of years' time to take on the likes of Mercedes-Benz and BMW with a more coupe-styled executive vehicle.

FLEETS have suffered a scathing attack at the hands of a Department of Trade and Industry select committee investigating why British car prices are the most expensive in Europe. MPs and consumer groups accused the fleet industry of being partly responsible for car prices in the UK being higher than on the Continent, because private buyers were effectively subsidising huge discounts given to corporate buyers.

A TOP level probe into price fixing claims by manufacturers subjected leading industry figures to a three-hour grilling to determine why British cars seem to cost more than in Europe. MPs pressed dealers and manufacturers to explain how the situation had arisen, claiming that the buying public was being 'ripped off.'

A PIONEERING move from BT Global Banking could soon see it have the 'greenest' fleet in the country. The division of BT is encouraging drivers on its 125-strong car fleet to enter into a deal with the company to plant trees to absorb the CO2 emissions from their vehicles.

FLEETS face the burden of an extra charge to cover the rocketing expense of tyre disposal. The National Tyre Distributors Association says the charge is inevitable and has launched a campaign through its 2,000-plus members to introduce a 50p per tyre charge.

LEX Vehicle Leasing has won a contract to supply and renew up to 150 vehicles on contract hire for the new Scottish Environment Protection Agency. Under the deal, Lex will purchase and leaseback about 18 vehicles and supply the rest on contract hire as several agreements with other contract hire operators come to an end.

A FLEET of Saab 9000 CD saloons have taken part in a test to try to assess the impact of extended service intervals on engines. Tristar Cars, a chauffeur company based near Heathrow airport, used 15 of its Saabs to carry out the 1,500,000-mile test.

THE Government has accepted the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution's verdict that company car tax rules should 'receive early attention'. The Commission called for an end to the distortions of the current system which incentivises drivers to clock up unnecessary business miles to qualify for tax breaks at 2,500 and 18,000 miles.

THE RAC has warned Chancellor Gordon Brown not to jeopardise the 750,000 jobs which depend on the motor industry by imposing punitive new taxes on company cars. The motoring organisation claims the current tax system fairly reflects the benefit which a driver receives from his company car, but cautions that the margin between fair and penal taxes is very small.

DIESEL fleets could be hit by increased servicing costs and fines from roadside emissions checks because current testing procedures are not accurate enough, the AA has warned. The breakdown service says equipment used by MoT stations and roadside test centres, which offers a snapshot measure of smoke density, is an inaccurate compromise because intricate analysis would be too expensive and time consuming.

THE last week of April 1999 will be the first 'fleet week' with a new look Fleet Show at its heart. This seven-day focus on fleet will feature business forums, offer networking opportunities, have its own website and include a gala dinner.

ROVER has renewed its contract with business information provider Dun and Bradstreet in a four-year, £8 million deal which will see it supply half of Dun and Bradstreet's 1,000-strong fleet.

NISSAN'S launch of its new police specification Terrano II came in the nick of time for Essex Police which was left high and dry by Ford when Maverick production ended. The Essex force had taken a police-spec Maverick on test, decided it was ideal for duty and placed an order with Ford, only to be told production had ended and it couldn't have any.

LIVERPOOL City Council has awarded a three-year contract to Kenning Car Van and Truck Rental for the supply of its fleet of commercial vehicles. So far the council has taken delivery of 180 panel vans, and this will soon increase to 200 as the council's fleet grows to 450 vehicles. The council owns the remaining 250 vehicles.

FLEET operators are being warned to caution van drivers against overloading vehicles while on Christmas 'booze cruises' to the continent. Overloading can damage vehicles, and hefty fines of up to £2,000 can be imposed as a result of overloaded vehicles, says the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association.