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Europcar’s grey fleet calculator can work out whether a hire car is a more cost effective option for each journey.

Europcar grey fleet calculator identifies best mobility solution for journeys

A new grey fleet calculator has launched from Europcar to help fleets tackle the expense of employees using their own vehicles for business journeys.

Free to use, the online calculator assesses the true cost of each journey, enabling employers to identify whether it is more economical for an employee to use their own vehicle or utilise a hire car for a specific business trip.

Chris Marsh, newly appointed UK aftersales director at Nissan

Chris Marsh appointed Nissan aftersales director

Nissan has appointed Chris Marsh as UK aftersales director, with immediate effect.

Marsh has held a variety of senior marketing, sales operations and dealer network development roles at Nissan and will head up the aftersales team to drive quality, strengthen operations and increase revenues.

He commented: “Nissan has seen significant and consistent growth in sales and vehicle parc over the last five years which presents a huge aftermarket opportunity for the network. I look forward to developing this further and driving dealer profitability, whilst also ensuring we provide the highest level of service to our customers.”

The autonomous pods are under development for Heathrow airport.

Self-driving pods go on public display

Autonomous pods under development for Heathrow airport are being made available for the public to view this week.

The project is being run by the British INSIGHT consortium with the help of £2.2m government funding and is intended to transform the current Heathrow Ultra-Pods into hi-tech autonomous vehicles that will be able to run without guides or tracks.

The pods, which are designed to help plug the gap for short low-speed journeys, are described by project team as a ‘last mile’ transport solution, are said to be ideally suited to moving people and luggage between local railway stations, hospitals and car parks.

The M8 ‘missing link’ opened five weeks ago. Credit: Transport Scotland

Motorists get full access to M8, M73 and M74 improvements

Daytime lane restrictions on the M8, M73 and M74 are to be removed over the coming days, giving motorists access to the full benefits of the widened motorways.

As part of the M8 M73 M74 Motorway Improvements Project, a range of improvements have been built over the last three years, including the new M8, improvements to Raith and Shawhead junctions as well as widening of the M8, M73 and M74, with new lanes providing an increase in motorway capacity.

Scotland’s economy secretary Keith Brown said: “These huge improvements to the Central Scotland motorway network, which had been operating significantly beyond capacity, will improve connections for business and road users alike. This will unleash the economic benefits which lie at the heart of this project and help our economy grow in a sustainable manner.”

Solus is celebrating its 20-year anniversary with a rebrand of its accident repair centres.

Solus accident repair service gets rebrand

The Solus network of accident repair centres is celebrating its 20-year anniversary with a rebrand.

The nationwide chain, owned and operated by Aviva, will receive updated customer areas featuring real life customer stories, new signage and workshop banners, and will also include the new ‘Welcome back to normal’ tagline.

Simon Smith, Solus operations director, said: “Car repair centres are not always the most customer friendly environments, which can be intimidating for some people. We want to change that and create a welcoming environment for all our customers.

The roll-out of the new brand has already started at Cumbernauld, Warrington, Basingstoke and Bournemouth and will continue throughout the other repair centres across the country to be completed by the end of 2017.