News - Page 2311

FORD'S offer of hands-free mobile phone kits has been so successful that it is being extended for another month. But the company's dealers will charge for the fitting of the £135 kits supplied during October.

THE RAC has extended its standard of cover to include people carriers - together with all their passengers. The move comes in the face of mounting pressure on all the recovery organisations to increase their provision to cover MPVs after a barrage of adverse publicity.

HERTZ Leasing has won a deal to supply 80 cars on contract hire to Boeing Operations International for a major defence project. Hertz Leasing has been supplying vehicles to Boeing for special projects employees for 16 years.

FLEET Cost Management has secured a solus deal to provide 300 Citroen cars and vans to London-based facilities management specialist The Building and Property Group. The first 16 of the vehicles, which will be mainly C15 vans, have been delivered to cover the Portsmouth area. Others will follow as vehicles on the mainly Ford fleet are due for replacement over the next 12-18 months.

FLEET operators are being advised to examine policies on allowing employees' unmarried partners to drive company cars, following a European test case ruling which may force companies to offer the same rights to homosexual couples. The case was brought by lesbian railway clerk Lisa Grant, who took legal action against South West Trains when it refused to allow her live-in female partner to have the same travel concessions as colleagues' heterosexual partners.

THE widely-publicised millennium 'timebomb' is unlikely to have any serious impact on the vast majority of fleet vehicles operating in the UK. Most of the mainstream manufacturers say the on-board computer systems fitted to their vehicles are fully millennium-compliant. Vauxhall is taking a much more cautious stance however, stating that it is impossible to be certain whether all GM vehicles are compliant.

A NEW 'cash or car' software package has won an innovation award in the Institute of Transport Management's prestigious annual awards. The recently launched cfo (Car Finance Options) software has been developed as a co-operative venture combining the talents of Deloitte & Touche (one of the world's largest accountancy firms), CAP Motor Research and Fleet NewsNet, following rapidly increasing interest in the whole 'cash or car' debate.

AVIS Fleet Services has won one of the biggest sale and leaseback deals in the history of the UK fleet industry, taking over the 3,000-strong company car fleet of financial services giant General Accident plc. The multi-million pound contract hire deal for GA's existing fleet will also see Avis, subsidiary of GE Capital Fleet Services, provide new cars from GA's Rover and Peugeot restricted badge list.

BRITISH businesses are being urged to revolutionise the role of the fleet manager to help achieve an integrated transport system for the country. Experts say the traditional role of the fleet manager as the controller of company cars must be expanded to embrace all company transport and communication issues to ensure their employers operate at peak efficiency.

TOYOTA is continuing to extend its links in the community near its Burnaston factory by signing another high-profile contract with Derby County Football Club. The Premier League side cemented its relationship with Toyota by ordering 54 cars for management, staff and players.

TOAD Innovations has bought Laserline and Sigma for £4m, making it the largest car security company in Britain. The move comes as Toad's annual results show full-year losses of £5.1m, compared to £2.3m for the previous year.

LAND Rover is recruiting an additional 300 production personnel to meet anticipated demand for the Freelander off-roader. On sale across Europe in January, Freelander production moves to double shift in December, requiring more staff at Solihull.

FOURTEEN Ford Kas have been acquired by Stourport-based Gemini Accident Repair Centre under a low cost leasing scheme being promoted to local bodyshops by the Brooklyn Ford Business Centre in Redditch. The dealership says the scheme will help bodyshops to increase courtesy car fleets.

MOTOR racing commentator Murray Walker will open the new £8m ICA Bristol auction centre in February next year. The centre will be able to offer around 70,000 cars a year in two American-style back-to-back auction halls, with buyers able to bid in both halls simultaneously.

GOODYEAR has introduced run-flat tyre technology at its Technical Center test circuit in Luxembourg. The extended mobility tyre, which allows drivers to continue with a flat tyre for about 50 miles at speeds of up to 50mph, is fitted to standard wheels and will be available as a replacement tyre throughout Europe in 1988.

PAPER converter Staples Disposables has taken delivery of a Mercedes 412 Sprinter and curtainside drawbar unit on four-year full service contract hire from Ryder. The Sprinter, which also has a curtainside body, is an addition to the company's fleet of six vehicles. It will cover an average of 50,000 miles a year, making nationwide deliveries for the Lincolnshire-based company which makes toilet rolls, paper napkins and printed tissues.

CITROEN is to hold prices of its C15 Champ, Dispatch and Relay ranges for the remainder of the year after announcing that the cost of the Berlingo has increased by 2%.

FIAT has launched a new van centre and fleet dealer network offering specialist sales and service for LCV users. The 71 Fiat Van Centres are currently going live throughout the UK.

NEW technology being introduced by Trafficmaster will link live traffic information with route-mapping, and be able to recommend faster alternative routes to drivers. Passive Target Flow Management (PTFM) will provide live data on traffic flow and journey times, and combine with navigation capabilities to recognise the busiest time of travel in certain areas, and suggest the fastest alternative routes for that time of day.

THE fleet industry was this week grappling with the implications of the Government's proposed changes to the vehicle registration system. The Government has pencilled in two age-identifier plate changes a year, starting in September 1998. A final decision is due to be announced later this year but Transport Minister Gavin Strang's proposals have already caused consternation.

SKODA is to unveil a series of fleet initiatives next month in a bid to break into the UK company car market. Following the unveiling of the new Skoda Octavia at the Fleet Motor Show earlier this year, where fleet managers were able to drive the car for the first time, the Milton Keynes-based importer says it has been inundated with fleet business.

FIAT and Alfa Romeo have increased prices by an average of 1.1% and 0.8% respectively, with immediate effect. The hikes follow similar increases in March and also include a £25 increase in delivery charges. Selected Alfa models - the 155 and 164 ranges, 1.6/1.8 versions of the 145/146 ranges and the Spider - escape the rise, but are still subject to the increase in delivery charges.

THE West Bromwich Building Society has outsourced its 84-strong vehicle fleet to BCH Vehicle Management. The vehicles will remain under the society's ownership, but BCH will provide a full fleet management outsourcing service which will include vehicle acquisitions and disposals, maintenance, accident management and short term rental.

NISSAN Motor (GB) has sold its 500,000th vehicle since the company was established in January 1992 - a 2.0 GT Primera bought by Barclays Bank. The bank, which operates a 6,000-strong fleet, about half of which are Nissans, has been a customer of the manufacturer for four years.

THE 1997 Fleet News Roadshows will focus on three key operating areas - cost control, taxation and contract hire and will be held on Tuesday, December 2, at Sopwell House, St Albans, Herts, and Tuesday, December 9, at The Donington Thistle Hotel, close to East Midlands Airport.

QUICKS is the latest dealer group to join the scramble for higher-margin prestige new car business with the £45.5 million acquisition of Caverdale's dealer network. The deal doubles the size of Quicks' empire and adds a handful of prestige and specialist marques - Jaguar, Land Rover and Chrysler - to the group's portfolio, catapulting it into the top 10 dealer groups with 48 outlets. Both companies operate 24 outlets.

AGGRESSIVE bull bars could be banned on vehicles in Britain if Government proposals outlined in a new consultation document are backed. Roads Minister Baroness Hayman is no longer prepared to wait for the European Union to resolve the controversy surrounding bull bars on vehicles and has adopted a go it alone policy.

THE Government should recognise daily rental vehicles as a distinct entity when it formulates its new plans for an integrated transport solution. Terry King-Smith, chairman and chief executive of BCR Car & Van Rental, believes there is a clear danger that short-term hire vehicles could suffer inadvertently under any blanket policy designed to reduce car usage, especially in urban areas.

THE number of employees paying tax on their company cars is decreasing annually but the tax take reached a near record in 1995-96 - the last year for which Inland Revenue figures are available. Statistics from the Inland Revenue show that in 1990-91 the tax take from company cars was £1.12 billion.

HR OWEN - the dealer group with a reputation for specialising in luxury - is to focus further on prestige marques after doubling its interim profits without significantly increasing turnover. The group reported pre-tax profits of £2.15 million in the half-year to June 30 (1996: £1.07 million) on turnover up just 10% at £188 million (1996: £170 million) and announced the disposal of Peugeot and Nissan sites in Epsom and St Albans.