A round up of fleet news from the UK and Europe
SME leasing campaign from VW
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Volkswagen (VW) has begun a dealership
programme to target fleet opportunities among the estimated one
million small and medium enterprises (SMEs) running company
vehicles in the UK, similar to
recent ambitions announced by Mercedes Benz and Kwik-Fit
Fleet.
Opened last month, VW’s Small Business
Leasing Contact Centre has already fielded 345 enquiries and
quotations, as the manufacturer aims to add value to companies not
accustomed to running a fleet.
Vehicles available from franchised VW
retailers run from compact city cars such as the Golf or Beetle,
through to the marque’s estate and 4×4 models, and include models
using the manufacturer’s BlueMotion technology.
Volvo Truck’s fleet management
app
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By GlobalDataDynafleet, the
online fleet management system by Volvo Trucks, has been made
available as a mobile telephone app.
The app will make location, fuel use,
times and emissions details available in real time to fleet
planners.
Volvo Trucks claim such information,
together with driver training, can deliver fuel savings of up to
7%, maybe more when using the fuel efficiency score – analysing
driving and engine use – feature of the app.
Toyota target
company car market with Yaris
Japanese manufacturer Toyota is
confident the Yaris Hybrid T4 can dominate the UK company car
market, claiming the model has the lowest running costs, and second
lowest finance costs, over three years and 60,000 miles compared to
rivals in the sector.
Toyota calculates the finance costs of
the hybrid at £2,138 over three years, second only to £2,114 for
the VW Polo 1.2 TDI CR 75 Stop Start Blue Motion, both less than
hybrid models of the Ford Fiesta, Honda Jazz and Vauxhall
Corsa.
According to fleet data analysts
KWIKcarcost, the Yaris would cost a company 35.2p per mile,
measured by fuel cost,
CAP residual value, and taxation including benefit-in-kind
calculation, making it between 44 and 10% less expensive than the
four models above.
Europcar take range-extended
Ampera
Europcar, one of the continent’s largest
car rental companies, has taken on 30 Opel Ampera electric vehicles
(EV) to be made available on short term rental in Frankfurt and
Brussels, having already been available for hire in
Amsterdam.
The Opel Ampera is the equivalent of the
Vauxhall Ampera, recently added to the fleet of global vehicle
renter Hertz,
which announced the advent of an ‘EV revolution’.
With the range of EVs cited as a
constant sticking point to the sector’s success, the Ampera’s
ability to travel up to 80km (50 miles) between charges, and 500km
(over 300 miles) using the additional petrol-driven generator, is
being touted as the model’s advantage, as seen in the new marketing
campaign begun in Germany by Opel and Europcar.
Acfo call for psychometric
testing
Attendees at last week’s Acfo (the
association of car fleet operators in the UK) Conference and AGM
were told the police were ‘waiting’ to convict a fleet operator
under corporate manslaughter laws in effect since 2007.
As such, fleet operators were urged by
Sgt Gareth Morgan of South Wales Police Driver Training to
instigate psychometric testing, encouraging drivers to self-assess
road risk and behaviour.
Sgt Morgan said that psychometrics were
cheaper and better than on-the-road training at producing changes
in driver responsibility, and did so in a way that could be
recognised by courts as an effort to reduce risk by fleet operators
in the case of an accident.
LeasePlan response to potential
green car taxation
A
report in the Daily Telegraph that the UK government is discussing
changes to Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) on smaller, more fuel
efficient cars (currently paying less duty), following a reduction
of the benefit-in-kind taxation exemption threshold in the March
Budget, has drawn an angry retort from fleet management company
LeasePlan.
David Brennan, managing director at
LeasePlan said: “Any revision that penalises drivers for opting for
lower emissions vehicles flies in the face of conventional wisdom,”
at a time when
company cars in the UK are averaging less emissions than private
retail vehicles.
“It would appear that tax revenue in
this sector is being put ahead of genuine environmental progress,”
said Brennan. “With one in ten vehicles on Britain’s roads being
driven by business drivers, additional VED costs have the potential
to damage UK industries which are reliant on keeping their people
mobile.”
richard.brown@vrlfinancialnews.com
