ACFO Award winners

ACFO, the body representing the interests of businesses which operate cars or vans, has awarded the following manufacturers with awards, at the 2009 ACFO Fleet Car and Van of the Year Awards.

- The Volkswagen Golf range won ACFO Fleet Car of the Year for the Volkswagen Golf.

- Ford won the Fleet Light Van of the Year for the Transit Connect.

- Volkswagen also won the Van Award for their Caddy range.

- Mercedes-Benz won the Fleet Panel Van of the year category for their Sprinter.

Julie Jenner,ACFO chairman said, “The Awards continue to represent the true face of fleet operations,rather than showroom appeal”.  Car leasing and van leasing prices on the above manufacturers are readily available off the site now.

Citroen Relay Ambulances

The West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust has taken delivery of six new Citroen Relay 40 L4H3 HDi 160 vans which have all undergone a major conversion to accomodate the needs of a frontline emergency ambulance service. The Citroen Relay 40 L4H3 HDi 160 is the largest and most powerful panel van in the Citroen commercial range and the specialist build will allow the ambulances to perform as an Alternative Response Vehicles (ARV).

Inside the ambulance

Some of the bespoke features added includes a heavy fitting lifting hoist and a Ferno Harrier electric lift stretcher with bariatric capability, plus other standard emergency equipment like a defibrillator, spinal boards and oxygen equipment.  

Graham Cann, West Midland’s Ambulance Service’s regional head of fleet said,” The Citroen Relay ARV is unique in this country. It has taken a year to build while undergoing a series of rigorous test procedures. The ambulance is currently being used in training to ensure all staff fully understand how to use the many new features and specialist equipment”.

The West Midlands Ambulance Service operates a considerable fleet of Citroen vehicles including 50 Berlingo Multispace, seven Relay Combi Minibuses and 30 L4H2 Relays. In addition the Trust runs 10 Citroen Relay 40 L4H3 HDi 160 vans which have been converted for use as ARVs. All the Citroen range is available off the site with up to date car leasing or van leasing prices.

Comparecontracthire.com, the UK’s first car and van leasing price comparison site, has updated two of its quote engines to make life even easier for customers looking to compare contract hire car or van leasing prices at one source. There are four quote engines currently on the site namely Exact Model, £ Shopper, CO2 Shopper and MPG Shopper and enhancements have been made to Exact Quote and £ Shopper following recent customer feedback.  Each of these quote engines compares pricing data from the fourteen contract hire companies who supply data to the site.

Exact Quote

The exact model car or van leasing quote engine, has been updated to add another button, called ”Quick Quote”, which allows you to go straight to prices on standard terms, rather than choose the terms yourself. This change was as a direct result from customer feedback in that it could be quite time consuming to keep re-inputting all the fields necessary to get another quote on your Exact Model choice. This reduces the number of “clicks to get a quote” by five.

Over 50 per cent of the customer enquries on Comparecontracthire.com are based on non-maintained contract hire, three years, 10,000 miles per annum, on a three initial rental followed by 35 subsequent payments.

Audi TT RS

Quick Quote allows a business or a private customer to get straight to the prices on these standard terms, so this new feature should be popular. You can still amend your contract terms to other parameters i.e. 24 months, 48 months or 20,000 miles etc. once you get to the results pages, or if you like choosing your terms that feature is still available.

£ Shopper

The £ Shopper is an excellent way to find the best price on the manufacturers you like. The ranges previously set were based on £50 bandings, however you could potentially miss out on a bargain if you selected a range at a higher price than you thought you could afford.

The new enhancement, launched today, allows you to select your own budget range i.e. you can now search for all Audi’s and BMW’s, for example, between a price range of £0-£300 just to make sure you are aware of the least expensive rental for these makes.

BMW 730D

Robert Wastell, managing director at Comparecontracthire.com said ” We are always interested in any customer feedback and how we can improve the site, so thank you to those customers who made these suggestions. We are planning further site enhancements to make the site as easy as possible to use, however any further suggestions would be welcomed. Just e-mail us via the Contact us button on the site”.

Honest John, the motorist ” agony uncle” motoring website has now partnered up with Comparecontracthire.com to offer car and van contract hire leasing price comparison to its millions of visitors. Honest John received over 750,000 unique visitors in May 2009 and is a motoring columnist for the Telegraph, which has 3 million readers every Saturday.

Comparecontracthire.com will now provide Honest John site visitors with access to contract hire price comparison for car and van leasing, via its innovative quote engines.

There are currently fourteen contract hire partners on Comparecontracthire.com proving both business and personal contract hire. Sarah Thomas, publisher at Honest John said ” Our aim is to provide our customers with the best deals and to provide honest and open advice so they are always fully informed. The finance partners on Comparecontracthire.com are well respected companies in their own right and we are confident they will offer an excellent service to our customers”

Robert Wastell, managing director at Comparecontracthire.com said “I am delighted to be working with Honest John as they are a market leader in the motoring editorial sector. This new arrangement will help their customers, who are interested in financing their next vehicle, understand the benefits of contract hire versus ownership of a vehicle. Contract hire offers a customer security through fixed cost motoring, at an affordable price and we provide direct access to many of the UK vehicle finance houses”