News - Page 2299

THIS week the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association celebrates its 30th birthday. Since its formation in 1967 the association has consistently defended the interests of its members, lobbying and educating Governments on legislation which would affect rental and leasing companies. Freddie Aldous, BVRLA president since 1984, said: 'From the beginning competitors have worked together on behalf of the industry, and that culture has continued to this day.'

1998 is shaping up to be the year of the personal motoring scheme as leasing companies prepare for the uncertainty of next spring's Budget. A straw poll revealed that if leasing companies had not finalised their personal contract purchase or personal lease schemes then their plans were at least at a late stage of development.

HARTWELL Motor Contracts and Fleet Support Group have teamed up to provide fleets with a highly specialist fleet funding and management solution called Connections. This is billed as a hybrid of Hartwell's financial expertise and FSG's fleet management specialism to offer the best of both worlds.

FLEETS must take steps to ensure drivers do not defraud companies by buying items such as sandwiches and cigarettes and claiming them as fuel, Shell has warned. Tim Betts, manager Shell Fuel and Fleet Services - speaking at the Fleet News Roadshow in Donington - said that preventing each driver from buying just one pack of cigarettes a week would result in savings of about £7,500 a year for a 50-vehicle fleet.

FLEET operators must consider the implications of guaranteeing loans for employees when looking to offer cash alternatives to traditional company car schemes. Swan National business development manager William Caldwell told Fleet News Roadshow delegates that employees may, unknown to the company, have poor credit ratings which would prevent them from getting a loan to buy a car without company support.

GOVERNMENT moves to clamp down on tax avoidance could sound the death knell for in-house leasing schemes and other complex forms of tax-planning. Experts from accountant Deloitte & Touche warned companies to prepare themselves for blanket legislation after Chancellor Gordon Brown made the new Government's intentions clear in his Pre-Budget Statement.

FORD is making air conditioning available at no extra cost on all Escorts from LX level upwards. The offer covers all Escort models of LX level and above except the Cabriolet and is in addition to a sunroof where applicable. It comes into effect on January 5 and can be deleted if not required.

ROVER is increasing prices of its small, medium and niche cars by 2% with effect from Monday, December 22. Mini, Rover 100, 200, 400, Cabriolet, Coupe and Tourer are all subject to the increase, but the MGF, 600 and 800 escape the hike.

VAN sales in November were almost 3,000 units up on November 1996 at 18,782 (15,792) taking vans sales in 1997 to 200,232 units against 179,055 in the first 11 months of last year. Sales of light vans totalled 6,717 last month (November 1996: 5,720) to take sector sales for the year to 77,067 (68,496).

FLEET diesel sales fell for the third month in succession, but the top three diesel manufacturers - Peugeot, Ford and Vauxhall - all recorded month-on-month increases. Sales were 1.81% down last month on November 1996 at 15,996 (16,291) taking fleet diesel sales for the year-to-date to 195,711 - 2.3% down on last year's 11-month total of 200,292. Peugeot retained its market leadership last month with sales of 3,483 (3,369) and the 306 retained its top-selling model status.

FLEET sales will smash through the one million mark in 1997 and with December sales to come fleets have already bought more cars this year than they did in the whole of 1996. The sales barrier will be smashed due to record November new car sales in both the fleet and total market sectors. Last month fleets bought a total of 79,183 cars - up 12.51% on November 1996's 70,377 units and ahead of the previous November record of 76,005 set two years ago. It was also the eighth record month for fleet sales this year.

TOYOTA has bolstered the Picnic line-up with the introduction of a turbodiesel derivative with the accent on value for money. The 2.2 indirect injection unit is the first diesel engine to be fitted to a Toyota people-carrier in the UK. Although eclipsed in the economy stakes by more modern units, the Picnic TD carries an extremely competitive price tag.

BRITISH Aerospace has recorded tremendous success for its personal contract hire scheme, called Premier, with more than 1,500 orders received since its launch in June. Premier allows staff to source any Rover Group vehicle, including Land Rover and MG, on a two-year all-inclusive leasing package with no deposit required. British Aerospace already operates a solus Rover fleet for its company car drivers.

MOTORISTS have been urged to have 'none for the road' in the latest Christmas and New Year clampdown on drink-driving. The Government's 1997/98 £2 million campaign was launched as the Government announced that it is to undertake a review of the drink-drive laws in the New Year. The move is expected to result in the slashing of the drink-driving limit from 80mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood to 50mg.

FLEET insurance premiums are set to rise after the Government confirmed it will introduce legislation to force at-fault parties to cover the cost of NHS treatment of road traffic accident victims. Fleets and contract hire companies are predicting an increase in the uptake of driver training to reduce risk profiles.

NATWEST Markets is offering its 4,000 employees access to Lex Vehicle Leasing's FreeChoice PCP scheme. The company provides a cash allowance in lieu of a company car to many of its employees.

ENVIRONMENT-conscious Westminster City Council is converting its six pool cars from petrol to liquefied petroleum gas over the next three months. The council is at the forefront of fleet environmental initiatives, being a signatory to the London First Clean Air Charter for best fleet practice and earlier this year it launched its Green Pennant scheme and held a national conference aimed at encouraging fleet operators to cut harmful exhaust emissions in London.

PIONEERING Westminster City Council is to buy a pollution-free vehicle of the future as part of its crusade for cleaner air. The revolutionary hydrogen-powered van costing £33,135 will go on the road with the council's parks department in April.

FLEET funding and management specialist VELO claims companies can save up to £1,500 per car per year with its new vehicle finance package, compared with outright purchase or contract hire. The scheme, called Personal Car Contract Programme, provides employees with a cash allowance alternative to the company car, but is more sophisticated than a basic personal lease or personal contract purchase product.

CONTRACT hire and leasing companies which cannot offer company car drivers a personal motoring product risk being left behind within the next 12 months. This stark warning was issued by Jim Norris, the newly-appointed director of Lex Vehicle Leasing's Personal Contract Purchase scheme Lex Freechoice.

VAUXHALL dealership Bristol Street Ilford has won a 300-vehicle supply deal to provide cars and vans to the 25 member companies of the National Security Association. Worth £3 million at showroom prices, the vehicles will be supplied over a period of three years to companies like Capitol Security and Chubb.

MORE fleet managers are being urged to register their interest in applying for places on the first RAC Scholarship Awards scheme - the new £50,000 industry training initiatives supported and funded by the RAC and run in conjunction with the Institute of Car Fleet Management.

NEW cars are statistically less likely to be stolen than older vehicles as a result of the higher levels of standard security insisted upon by fleet operators. New figures released by the Home Office show that 82% of new cars fall into the 'low' or 'medium' risk categories with none branded 'high' risk. The statistics offer proof that the extra security measures increasingly fitted as standard to new cars are having a dramatic deterrent effect.

BRITISH industry has warned Prime Minister Tony Blair against isolating himself by insisting on unrealistically high targets for the reduction of greenhouse gases. Blair spelled out his vision to representatives from all sectors at a mini Green Summit at Number 10 ahead of this week's global climate change conference in Kyoto, Japan.

INDUSTRY moves to raise the professionalism of fleet management could be paying off with a national newspaper recruitment advertisement for a fleet manager, ideally with an Master of Business Administration degree and paying a salary of £50,000- £55,000 a year. The position advertised demands someone with a clear strategic direction and strong management skills, able to ensure an efficient infrastructure for the purchase, maintenance and disposal of fleet vehicles.

BULL Information Systems has signed a dual-badge supply arrangement, giving its 1,200 drivers a choice of Vauxhall and Rover cars. The new arrangement will see 600 replacement cars joining the fleet in the first six months, followed by a further 600 to 700 cars over the following two years. The fleet was previously made up of Rovers and Peugeots.

LEX Vehicle Leasing has taken a lucrative piece of business from Dial Contracts after the Barclays subsidiary announced it had clinched a major pan-European deal. Lex this week announced a new solus deal to supply cars to pharmaceuticals giant AAH less than a year after Dial claimed it had signed a pan-European dual supply contract with AAH's parent company Haniel.

FLEET managers will have to grapple with conflicting residual value predictions for 1998 after CAP Motor Research predicted the first fall in used car prices in real terms for four years this month. The company's Dataflow forecast believes the second-hand car market will fail to keep pace with inflation this month after 48 months of consecutive monthly increases, and there are indications that the heady days of windfall profits at disposal are coming to an end.

FLEET News editor Ashley Martin won the Renault-sponsored UK Journalist of the Year Award at the 1997 Guild of Motoring Writers annual dinner and awards. Held at London's RAC Club, Martin, who has been editor of Fleet News for three years and on the editorial staff since June 1991, won the award 'for the most outstanding journalistic effort during the year'.

TURMOIL in the Far East tiger economies has backfired on Proton's ground-breaking bid to build UK daily rental business without residual value tears. The pioneering deal involved placing 3,500 Personas with daily rental companies on short cycle then buying them back at a guaranteed price and shipping them to Malaysia to satisfy rocketing demand for second-hand right-hand-drive cars.