By Jonathan Minter and Amy Freeman
This week’s fleet news round up, featuring Europcar’s deal with VW, Terberg’s electric tractor, Hitachi Capital on MOT changes, and the latest appointments in fleet service providers.
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Europcar agrees deal for new VW Golf VIIs
Car hire company Europcar has added the Volkswagen (VW) Golf VII to its fleet of vehicles.
It is able to offer these vehicles to its customers through a buy-back agreement with VW.
Ken McCall, managing director of Europcar UK Group said the Golf was a perennial favourite among motorists and "Europcar will have both the Golf VII SE and S models on fleet by the end of March."
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By GlobalDataTerberg to launch all-electric distribution tractor
Specialist Dutch vehicle manufacturer Terberg Benschop is planning to launch its first ever all-electric distribution tractor, the YT202-EV 4×2.
The tractor will be distributed in the UK by Terberg DTS (UK) after making its debut at the Commercial Vehicle Show at the NEC Birmingham, 9-11 April.
Terberg estimates the battery has a life of between 3,500 and 5,000 charge cycles, giving it an average lifespan of five to seven years, which the company called a "comparable working life and performance to traditionally fuelled vehicles."
The YT202-EV is based on the existing YT range of tractors, and will feature the same operational options as the traditional options.
Hitachi Capital reminds company motorists about MOT changes
Hitachi Capital Vehicle Solutions has reminded company motorists cars need an MOT when they reach three years of age by law.
The reminder follows changes to the MOT rules on 20 March, introducing 20 further checks to the standard MOT to cover the growing number of electronic features on cars.
Average company car replacement schemes now regularly go beyond three years, with Hitachi Capital’s rate currently at 40 months, and therefore increasing numbers of company motorists will be affected by the MOT changes.
Tim Bowden, Hitachi Capital’s head of operations said "many drivers have been driving a car provided by their company for many years and may have forgotten about the need for an annual MOT once their car is three years old."
Tracker appoints marketing head
Stolen vehicle recovery (SVR) and fleet telematics expert, Tracker, has appointed Keith Reed as head of marketing.
In his new role Reed will promote Tracker’s SVR and fleet deals to both the consumer and trade markets.
Previously, Reed was consumer marketing director for Juniper Networks, leading a multi-channel and multi-national launch strategy for the mobile app market and principal consultant for Infosys Consulting.
Stephen Doran, managing director of Tracker, said Reed’s marketing expertise made him "the perfect person to drive forward plans for a high profile advertising campaign to promote our consumer SVR solutions, but he will also be in partnership with the motor trade to better support them.
"Furthermore, we have a number of strong initiatives coming this year, as well as plans to develop our technology to benefit some new and surprising markets."
King moves in-house at trg
Sarah King has been appointed head of training at trg Logistics.
King will manage the training of HR, compliance and office management at the driver supply and logistics company and will be responsible for all the training needs of trg staff.
Previously, King ran her own training and development company which provided trg with external training support services.
Nick Gordon, chief executive at trg, said: "As we continue to grow the trg business, it is essential that we further develop the proven skills and expertise of all our employees."
New head of IT at Tusker
Tusker has taken on Andrew Beard as head of IT.
Beard will lead a team of software engineers, developers and system administrators at Tusker and will be responsible for the development of the company’s back-office systems that support both the contract-hire and salary-sacrifice fleets.
Beard saw the appointment as a "challenge", saying: "Tusker has big expansion plans and, to be able to facilitate that expansion, we need to have in place the robust systems and IT infrastructure capable of supporting large numbers of vehicles and drivers."
Tusker chief executive David Hosking added he expected Beard "to play a key role in the continued development of both our back-office and our front-end systems to ensure they stay at the cutting edge of development within the fleet market and ahead of our competition."
