Category : Comment
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 »
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 »
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 »