Category : Comment
On the road: Charging ahead
Three diverse brushes with the National Grid this last month have cornered me into contemplating anew our collective motoring future when the oil runs out… A … Read More »
Is the future electric for organisations?
Over the past year we’ve started to see a shift in attitudes towards electric vehicles (EVs). Once considered unfashionable, expensive and unachievable, EVs have now found … Read More »
Short-term solution
Finding a good local short-term rental provider can be an issue for many businesses. The easy option is to source from one of the large national … Read More »
What I’ve learnt: Julie Jenner
Why I joined ACFO and the benefits it brings I joined ACFO in 1992 after inheriting responsibility for 35-40 company cars when working in the … Read More »
Health care
Diabetes is the biggest threat to the workforce, so we are told, with the number of people diagnosed more than doubling from 1.4 million in 1996 … Read More »
The Insider: ESOS fables
By now I’m guessing you will have heard about ESOS. My first thought was “more work” followed by “jobs for the boys” but given that sometimes … Read More »
On the road: A bumpy ride
Which particular aspect of the UK's crumbling road infrastructure are you currently least gruntled with? Endless potholes? Incessant roadworks? Inadequate gritting in winter? Country lane surfaces knobblier … Read More »
The Insider: Things I hate to hear
I’ve been in fleet a long time now so for a change, I thought I’d share a few of the things I’ve really hated hearing over … Read More »
A touch of class
From the second quarter of 2015 Ford is launching its up-market Vignale sub-brand and the first model to wear the badge is the new generation Mondeo. … Read More »
What I've Learnt: TMC's Paul Jackson
That people are “lazy” Everyone has times when they know they could make a change for the better but they end up giving into the temptation … Read More »
On the road: Creature comforts
For most of my childhood, my grandmother lived in a quayside cottage overlooking a muddy creek on the Fal estuary. Every day at 6.00pm, her … Read More »
Q&A: Tom Gardiner of Aviva
How serious is the crash for cash problem? Fraudulent “slam-ons” – road traffic accidents deliberately caused in order to claim for whiplash compensation – increased by … Read More »
One year on
How time flies, whether or not you are having fun. It’s almost a year since we instigated our fleet’s mileage capture scheme and as HMRC mileage … Read More »
On the road: Switching off
Remember that delicious spat, almost a decade ago now, between Bill Gates and General Motors, in which the former suggested that ‘If GM kept up with … Read More »
Clamping down on "crash for cash"
The rate of reported fatal road accidents in the UK has dropped by 40% in the last fifty years; thankfully our roads continue to become safer … Read More »
Driver power
Everyone who has stepped inside a car showroom has a view on car dealers. Most people will also have a story to tell, chances are it … Read More »
Pod life
I’m hearing a lot about autonomous driving at the moment. We already have cars which will brake if we don’t, keep us a safe distance … Read More »
Look at the small picture
With the UK economy finally back to pre-recessionary levels, there's some unexpected dynamics developing in the new car market. Private demand for new cars is … Read More »
Getting the (Ad)Blues
I have come to the conclusion that working in the product development department of the AA or RAC must be a brilliant job – looking … Read More »
What SMEs want
The new car market in the UK continues to defy all expectations with May heralding the longest period of sustained growth since the 1980s as businesses … Read More »
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 »
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 »
The Insider: Taking responsibility
I'm not quite getting the idea of the latest news on the Corporate Manslaughter Act. Not that I wish to trivialise what is undoubtedly a … Read More »