Road safety is important to any light commercial van operator and Citroen already offers Trafficmaster’s Smartnav satellite system in the Berlingo, Dispatch and Relay panel vans.

Under a new initiative with Trafficmaster, Citroen is now offering the Trafficmaster Fleet Director system at a subsidised rate of £19.99+ VAT per month. Fleet Director is a real-time fleet management programme that utilises Smartnav telematics to provide direct communication with drivers and to show their exact whereabouts. This is particularly of interest if a driver is working in a remote place allowing instant two-way communication.

The reporting available from Fleet Director also allows a van operator to improve road safety and help maintain their Duty of Care requirements.

The Government has pressed ahead with the planned 2p a litre rise in fuel duty from today, despite intense pressure from motoring groups. The further rise in oil prices looks set to push this up by 5p in total- putting an extra £120 a year on on fuel costs, for the average two-car family. This is the third rise in fuel duty in nine months, following increases in April and December.

RAC motoring strategist, Adrian Tink said,”This third fuel duty hike is unacceptable. Since the start of 2009, motorists have seen a 23 per cent rise in pump prices, meaning an extra £11 per tank for the average car”. Mr Tink also pointed out that VAT is set to rise back to 17.5%, on the 1st January 2010 and there is a further fuel duty rise due, in April 2010.

To ensure you get the best prices for your money don’t forget the website www.petrolprices.com records the cheapest prices for fuel in your location. It is also worth considering the combined miles per gallon consumption, when choosing your next car or van.

The MPG shopper at Comparecontracthire.com allows you to select the range of combined MPG fuel consumption you would like to achieve and choose the manufacturers whose vehicles you would like to see displayed. You can easily change the MPG ranges on the side menu bar if you don’t find a Bentley doing 70mpg!. And by choosing business or personal car hire you get to see the latest car leasing prices displayed as well.

Combined MPG is the figure presented for the Urban Cycle and Extra- Urban cycle together. It is an average of these two tests weighted by the distance covered in each.