All articles by Richard Irvine-Brown
Richard Irvine-Brown
Fleet Friday: Acfo, Manheim and EVs
Acfo, the association of car fleet operators, has asked UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne to review benefit-in-kind taxation for low-emission company cars.
One stop asset finance shop for UK SMEs
The UKs three asset finance organisations teamed up to launch a comprehensive list of sources of commercial finance for SMEs in the UK with the Small Business Finance Directory. Developed by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) in conjunction with the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers (NACFB) and with the assistance of the Asset Based Finance Association (ABFA), the aim of the online directory is to make alternative lines of funding easier to find and the bodies anticipate it will help 60,000 small businesses in its first year.
Fleet Friday: Hermes, VW and Daf
Hermes, Germanys largest logistics service provider and operator of 14,000 private parcel receiving offices, has added to its electric fleet with a four-year trial of the Fiat 500 E from commercial vehicle supplier Karabag.
Tough Q4 but positive 2011 – Leaseurope Index
Despite the economic downturn across the continent and a tough fourth quarter, the European leasing industry has seen improvement in 2011. The final results for the quarterly Leaseurope Index, which tracks a cross-section of European lessors, recorded total new business value in 2011 up 4.6% on 2010 to 75.24bn The latest report completes the first full year of the index including a static Q3 and a slight drop in profit recorded in Q2.
FLA celebrates a £21bn year in British leasing
Over 1,400 representatives of the UK leasing industry turned out at Grosvenor House, Park Lane, to commend a year in which they had secured £21bn of investment in new equipment, including a 10% rise in deals below £20m, and £52bn of new consumer credit. The numbers, and the work to achieve them, drew praise from Liberal Democrat peer Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon during his speech on the future of geo-politics while after dinner speaker Jeremy Vine joked with the audience that the signpost for the next economic crisis would be his purchase of a house.
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Fleet Friday: Leasedrive, TomTom and PostNord
A weekly roundup of fleet news from around the UK and Europe Independent UK fleet lessor Leasedrive has renewed its contract to provide fleet management services for Capgemini.
Fleet Friday: Santander, Alphabet, Acfo
Weekly round up of fleet news from the UK and Europe, including Santander, Zenith, Alphabet, UniCredit, Acfo, ACEA, Europcar, Lucky Red and Isuzu.
Fleet Friday: Arval, Zenith, Alphabet
Fleet Friday, 20 January 2012: Arval celebrate in France and the UK, Run Your Fleet praise rental alternatives, Alphabet call opportunistic insurance claims a “market failure” and Zenith have a new board director.
Consumer Credit Act is ‘good start’ – FLA
The Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) has called a proposal to transfer consumer credit regulation in the UK to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) the right starting point. However, the asset finance trade body warned the recommendations by the Financial Services Consumer Panel could stifle a significant amount of lending to small businesses. Although in favour of the Consumer Credit Act (CCA), Stephen Sklaroff, director general of the FLA, repeated previous concerns over the potential structure of the FCA, which would regulate it
Olympic IT lease deal for schools
IT finance group Econocom is set to supply schools with IT computer equipment used at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Econocom is believed to be financing the sale and leaseback of 9,600 personal computers, 1,000 laptops and 1,000 servers supplied by Acer to be used at the Games.