New Fiat Ducato

After three decades and five generations, the new Fiat Ducato commercial vehicle range has now gone on sale. The Ducato range gets brand new engines and is cheaper to run than the outgoing Ducato model it replaces, plus the interior cockpit has a more “car-like” feel to it, yet still retaining its durability.

The power units on the new models have two engine capacities with a range of 110,130, 148 and 177bhp engines, providing any fleet customer with a model to suit their own particular requirements. Whichever engine you choose, rest assured they all benefit from Fiat’s latest Multijet technology and all comply with Euro 5 emissions legislation. The new engines are more powerful than the current model’s, emit lower CO2 emissions, have better fuel economy plus have longer service intervals, making this a winning combination for any commercial vehicle fleet operator.

Inside the new Fiat Ducato is finished off with a high-quality finish, not normally seen in the commercial vehicle sector, plus new seats means its comfier to travel in too. There will be eight different capacities of vans ranging from eight to 17 cubic-metres, various lengths and Gross Vehicle Weights of the chassis providing conversion opportunities from anything from a motorhome, flatbed truck to a minibus.

ASDA has just signed up to the voluntary scheme to measure and reduce carbon emissions specifically from lorries and vans. The Freight Transport Association’s (FTA) Logistics Carbon Reduction Scheme (LCRS) represents around 50,000 commercial vehicles run by 55+ businesses and ASDA’s signing is seen as a major step forward in the scheme.

ASDA will supply fuel usage, fleet and activity data along with the other 55 businesses in the LCRS, to try and paint an accurate picture of the carbon emissions impact of the logistics sector. The UK has carbon emission targets that commit us to actual cuts in carbon emissions, however the aim of the LCRS focusses on producing less carbon per unit of resource of activity by sharing best practise and learning from all companies across the logistics sector.

Areas of progress to date include driver fuel efficiency training, use of biofuels and increases in vehicle carrying capacities. As fuel accounts for around 40% of all the costs of running a truck or van fleet, this seems a great idea to help all commercial vehicle operators reduce costs and their carbon emission footprint.

The scheme is still open to FTA members and non-members, so if you run a fleet of commercial vehicles and want to find out further information, or join (it’s free of charge), then visit the FTA carbon reduction website.

Vauxhall Commercial Vehicles

Vauxhall Commercial Vehicles topped the retail sales charts in September with over 2,000 vans registered in the new 61-plate month of September, according to data released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

Vauxhall is the UK’s largest manufacturer of commercial vehicles and its Luton plant recently celebrated a decade of Vivaro production, plus it also won a contract to build the next-generation Vivaro, securing UK jobs for the next decade too. Next year will also see the arrival of the all-new Combo as well which is also great news for UK manufacturing.

Richard Collier, Vauxhall’s National Commercial Vehicle Sales Manager, said,”September proved to be yet another excellent month for Vauxhall van sales. It’s great news for Vauxhall that despite the uncertain economic outlook there’s still strong demand for fuel efficient, high quality vans with low running costs and excellent manufacturer support”.  Vauxhall contract hire on the whole Vauxhall commercial vehicle range is on the site now.

A team of UK engineers, including representatives from Sevcon, Generator Technologies and Newcastle University, has just been awarded a grant of £518,000, by the UK’s Technology Strategy Board, to develop a new motor for pure electric and hybrid vehicles that will reduce the dependency on using rare earth metals.

Current EV motors use rare earth metals like Neodymium and Dysprosium and the new engine motor will use steel which is easier and cheaper to produce, plus its much less damaging to the environment.

The market for electric cars and commercial vehicles is expected to grow five fold over the next decade, from less than 2.0 million sold in 2010 to around 49 million by 2020 and hence the need to find a more-cost effective metal to drive the engines. The system is expected to be ready for production within four years.

Ford commercial vehicles

Ford is taking its commercial vehicle fleet direct to small businesses via a new initiative with B&Q. The first B&Q TradePoint Event took place in Bolton, Lancashire this month and the two-day roadshow brought around 30 equipment supply firms keen to demonstrate their products to builders, plumbers and other tradesmen.

Ford is supporting 37 of these roadshows across the UK, from as far as Aberdeen in Scotland, to Plymouth in the South-West of England. Each B&Q TradePoint has thousands of UK registered customers on its books, many of whom use a commercial related vehicle for their business.

Steve Clary, Ford’s commercial vehicles director, commented,”It is a great opportunity for Ford to meet trade customers and to demonstrate the attributes and benefits of Ford ownership. Ford is an event sponsor, and at each event we will be displaying a variety of vehicles, including of course the Ford Transit and Ford Transit Connect”. Ford contract hire on all Ford commercial vehicles is on the site now if you are interested in leasing a new van.

County Contractors new fleet

County Contractors, the Weston-super-Mare-based refurbishment company which runs a 70 strong vehicle fleet, has just taken delivery of 14 brand new Renault cars and vans. This is part of the first phase of replacing the remaining thirty commercial vehicles over the next eighteen months.

The vehicles delivered included nine Master vans, three Kangoo vans and two Kangoo cars, all finished off in the County Contractors livery. Keven Lee, Director of County Contractors, said,”Our decsion to go for Renault was based on excellent value for money, high level of standard specification including Bluetooth and satellite navigation that we hope will prove invaluable to our employees who travel the length and breadth of the country”.

He went onto say,”Combine this with the technical advances made by Renault resulting in good fuel economy and lower road tax due to the Euro 5 status achieved by the Master van, made our choice of manufacturer a relatively simple decision”. Renault van contract hire is on the site for the whole range if you are interested.

Ford Fiesta

The latest Society of Motor Manufacturers (SMMT) July 2011 new car registrations data has been released showing new car registrations fell by 3.5% (compared to July 2010) to 131,634 units. However Ford increased its market share for the month of July to 15.5% for the month and for the year-to-date position, to 15.4%.

Ford’s introduction of the latest all-new Ford Focus has helped boost their sales and the Focus is now catching up on the Ford Fiesta which is still the UK’s best selling car. The Ford Fiesta Van also performed well with 16.7% of the market but it was the Ford Transit that led the way in the commercial vehicle sector as the UK’s best selling van, with 28.5% of the market share.

Ford of Britain managing director, Nigel Sharp, said,”Ford’s best ever vehicle range demonstrated the breadth of its appeal by helping the company to increase share in all the key market sectors in July. Our latest, the new Ford Focus Studio, priced at under £14,000, will help us maintain this momentum as we and our dealers gear-up for the September sales rush”. Ford contract hire  on all the range (cars and vans) is on the site now.

CAP, the UK’s leading vehicle information provider, has just set its residual value (future resale value) for the Azure fully-electric van at just 20% after three years and 30,000 miles. This certainly reflects the conservative view that the trade is taking over the resale value of electric vans, despite the low running costs of the Azure.

The Azure Dynamics Transit Connect, which was launched into the UK this summer, is the result of a collaboration between Ford and Canadian company Azure Dynamics. The van has a current manufacturer list price of £39,999 and the CAP future forecast resale value is just £8,000 after 3yrs/30,000.

CAP’s opinion is that second-hand values of electric vans is fraught with many uncertainties with the main issue around whether expensive battery packs will need to be replaced at some stage. Tim Cattlin, CAP Commercial Vehicle Monitor editor, said,”We have no wish to dampen enthusiasm for any new development in the light commercial vehicles sector but at this point the prospects for all-electric vans are fraught with difficulties, despite the clear operating advantages of using one for specific kinds of work”.

The Freight Transport Association has been asking commercial vehicle freight operators in the parcel, 3PL, retail and bakery transport sectors to provide evidence to support its call to protect the current systems, which allow UK hauliers the right to operate trailers above four metres.

The EC’s proposals threaten to change the existing rules (to comply with certain safety and environmental standards) and to restrict the height to 4 metres. However following intensive lobbying, the EC announced it would consider raising this to 4.88 metres, but the FTA thinks this is not enough.

Andy Mair, FTA’s Head of Engineering Policy, said,”All the evidence points to the fact that many significant operators in the UK use trailers that would be outlawed if EC proposals went ahead; the cost saving and CO2 benefits of higher trailers would be lost too. The truth is that there is a substantial chunk of our logistics sector that operate trailers over 4.88 metres.Ideally we would like the height limit for all trailers, not just double-deck, to be set at least 4.95″.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) has undertaken some recent research on the 31 million cars currently registered on UK roads (the Motorparc) and has released some interesting facts and data. The SMMT data service has historical records of more than 200 million vehicles on its database and is capable of reporting by region, town or even by postcode. In addition to the 31 million cars on the road currently there are also 4.5 million commercial vehicles.

Here are some of the highlights of the SMMT data research;

• The total number of cars on UK roads is 31,258,197, up by 0.7% on 2009.
• Scotland and the South West were the biggest growth areas, each of which showed an increase of 4% since 2005.
• Greater London and the North West saw a greater fall in the number of registered cars over the last 5 years.
• Lowering CO2 emissions has been a focus for most car manufacturers and average CO2 emissions have dropped by 15% in the last five years.
• Chesterfield tops the low CO2 emissions table with 29% of its cars on the road emitting less than 140g/km.
• Plymouth has the fewest number of low CO2 cars at 19%.
• Silver is the most popular colour and has held top spot since 2008, however in 2010 white cars increased dramatically, up 7%.
• White cars are particularly popular along the South Coast and Leeds has the highest proportion of pink cars in the country.

Further information on SMMT data services can be found at www.smmt.co.uk/data