vicente
Beefing up local solutions
New car sales have powered out of recovery mode into full blown growth, with the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) revising upwards its … Read More »
What I've Learnt: Venson's Simon Staton
The right values The most important lesson I have learnt in my working career is that you can’t know everything and you can’t control everything. What … Read More »
Wrecks to riches
Long gone are my days of frequenting breakers’ yards to pick up parts for whatever old wreck I was driving around in at the time. … Read More »
Q&A: CD Auction Group on its new defleet programme
How does it work? ‘Under the Fleet Crystallisation programme, CD Auction Group will offer to pay the vendor an agreed value for any vehicle within 56 … Read More »
Gear up to accountancy standards transparency
The ongoing consultation process around the proposed accountancy changes to formulate a common standard for all leased assets including company cars has put forward the proposal … Read More »
Disc world
So, those little coloured paper discs which prove to all and sundry we have paid our car tax, and which have caused so much grief … Read More »
Thinking locally
While Ford has long been the biggest player in the UK fleet market, recent years have seen a renewed focus on appealing more to smaller … Read More »
What lies beneath?
If you run company vehicles, I bet you have been faced with the scenario where a car is involved in an accident, but repairable, yet the … Read More »
Anti-social media – when "selfies" become selfish
There is a time and a place for most things – and the taking of so-called ‘selfies’ is one very important example. It can always be … Read More »
Alternative thinking
Of all the brands impacted by the downturn, Mitsubishi could argue a convincing case for having one of the most miserable and long-lasting experiences. Sales … Read More »
SMEs in the UK still caught in funding squeeze
So it’s official: those long talked-about green shoots of recovery are finally growing. The UK economy is coming out of recession, and doing so not only … Read More »
The missing ingredients
How committed are car retailers to serving and satisfying your needs as a fleet boss? It’s a simple question with a myriad of answers, often … Read More »
On the road: 'Kerbing' the wear and tear issues
One of the great heartbreaks of testing lovely press cars is in returning the odd one, shamefaced, to the press office sporting some form of … Read More »
Camera shy?
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. These days most of us have a camera on our phones and Google “got-a-digit-in-every-pie” offers one set … Read More »
Easy money?
Was it really only last month that I used that cliché “the camera never lies” in my column? Coincidental then that I recently read news … Read More »
On the road: A queue too far
The most recent survey figures I can unearth suggest that, in 2012, traffic congestion cost our economy more than £4.3bn – equating to some £491 per … Read More »
In the dark
I was out running the pavements in the middle of town the other evening and was slightly alarmed to notice how many street lights weren’t working. … Read More »
What I’ve learnt
Mapping the journey In 17 years as a consultant in the fleet industry, I’ve seen a significant shift in the relationship between companies and their fleet … Read More »
Back in contention
Peugeot has sought to reinvent itself in recent years. Once a major volume player, up there behind Ford and Vauxhall, and one of the biggest fleet … Read More »
Paper trail
I’ve been awaiting with interest the outcome of the debate on whether to scrap the paper motor insurance certificate. Of course, we are now sticking with … Read More »
Let battle commence
There’s long been an unwritten rule adhered to by the bosses of the UK’s two biggest car sellers that they don’t acknowledge each other’s brand … Read More »
No fare alternative
How will we ever persuade employees out of their cars and onto public transport? I’m thinking ahead to a time when workplace parking prevents us from … Read More »
Hyundai gets emotional
Hyundai has been chipping away at the company car market for more than 20 years but now has the product line-up and commitment to finally present … Read More »
Surveying the horizon
Ever wondered which car dealers are happy to represent the brand displayed over their door and whose teams start every day with a spring in … Read More »
Salary isn’t being sacrificed
Salary sacrifice is back in the news again with its devotees saying business is on the up, and the sceptics suggesting it still isn’t as … Read More »
On the road: Tipping the limit
If, like me, you have been led by sundry children’s motoring programmes to believe that, when it comes to practicality, flexibility and all-round indestructibility, the Toyota … Read More »
Talk the talk
Carmakers like to talk the talk when it comes to how they deliver customer satisfaction to fleets. I’ve lost count of the number of car … Read More »
A hard habit to break
It’s probably 20 years ago that a colleague passed the comment that someone was leaving the company and she wondered if he would take his pot … Read More »
Total recall
Following my comment in last month’s column about VOSA’s lack of interest in pursuing a handbrake recall, I subsequently saw the Which? press release which noted … Read More »
Popular road tests
On the road: Turning heads
Itself reeking gently of self-promotion on the part of the car leasing company responsible (which shall remain nameless… Ha!), an email landed recently suggesting that … Read More »