By James Callery, Mike Cobb and Richard Irvine-Brown
A weekly round up of UK and global fleet news including European registrations, Hertz’s refinancing, a winter test for EVs, LCV auction prices, appointments, mileage trackes, Fleet Driver of the Year and deals for BRS, Arval, Agility and Tusker.
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European commercial vehicle registrations decline
New commercial vehicle (CV) registrations across the EU (not including Malta) have dropped 2.7% year-on-year for the opening 10 months of the year to a total of 1,389,244 units, despite an 8.1% rise in October to 158,960 units, according to the European automobile manufacturers’ association, the ACEA.
For the month, the new CV market shrank by 12.8% in Italy but grew 2.4% in Germany, 4.3% in France, 25.7% in Spain and 27.2% in the UK. For the January-October period, registrations in France dropped by 5.8%, in Germany by 5.9% and in Italy by 15.7%. Registrations were up 4.3% in Spain and 9.6% in the UK.
Of all CV registrations in the first 10 months of the year, 81.43% were LCVs, 79.66% in October. The largest year-on-year gains in LCV registrations were recorded in Spain, for the month, up 31.8%, and the UK, for the year-to-date, up 11.0%.
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By GlobalDataHertz’s rolling refinance
Hertz Global Holdings announced the completion this week of a securitisation to facilitate funding of its US vehicle fleet run by daily car rental operations Hertz, Dollar, Thrift and Firefly.
The short term issue which matures in November 2015 came as a $2.58bn (1.89bn/£1.58bn) A note tranche and a $600m lower grade B note.
Both of these HVF Series II notes will be used to refinance previous short term notes which were due to expire in November.
Volvo gains in October and year so far
Volvo Trucks has seen deliveries rise 27.63% year-on-year to 5,552 units across Europe in October. Year-to-October, the manufacturer has delivered 35,181 units, 87 less than the same period of 2012.
Globally, deliveries were up 20.62% year-on-year for the month to 12,124 units and up 5.82% for the first 10 months of the year to 91,690 untis.
For the month and year-to-October, Western Europe was the biggest market for the brand, followed by North America, then South America.
Nissan, Hitachi and British Gas: UK’s largest EV trial
British Gas has taken on 28 Nissan e-NV200 vans for a six-month test of performance in winter conditions, in partnership with Hitachi Capital Commercial Vehicle Solution and Gateshead College.
The vans will be part of British Gas’s 13,000 home-service fleet, with all four partners studying the viability of a 100% electric fleet.
Nissan has been trialling the e-NV200 for two years ahead of making the model available for public sale in 2014.
Jon Lawes, Hitachi Capital Commercial Vehicle Solutions divisional managing director, said: "We have enjoyed a long relationship with [British Gas parent company] Centrica and the British Gas team, and if this pilot proves a success it could mark a tipping point in the evolution of the commercial electric vehicle market."
BRS supplies Hermes with Renaults
UK consumer delivery firm Hermes has taken 17 Renault Premium tractor units on a six-year full contract hire deal from BRS.
The trucks are Hermes’ first Renaults among 200 trunking vehicles and a 600-strong, DAF-heavy fleet.
Rob Elmore, fleet services manager at Hermes, said: "The time was right to try a different supplier and a different make of vehicle to ensure that we are getting best value in the market. We evaluated total life costs, including fuel consumption and reliability, and BRS with Renault Trucks offered a good solution. We have tried both BRS and the Renault Premiums for short term hire and the experience has been positive."
Opting for Auris, Arval
UK optician service provider Visioncall has taken on 80 Toyota Auris hatchbacks for its national fleet, supplied over the next three years by Arval, the fleet arm of BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions, and from the SDM Toyota Centre in Falkirk.
Brian McGuire, group managing director of Visioncall, said it was "a priority that our vehicle fleet is cost-efficient to operate" and "the contract hire leasing rates from Arval were very competitive, making the Toyota the best all-round proposition for our fleet".
£1.5m deal for Agility and Toyota
Agility Fleet has signed a £1.5m (1.8m), three-year contract to supply more than 60 Toyota and Lexus low emission vehicles to international print company Itec. The vehicles include the Toyota Auris hatchback and Auris Touring Sports and Lexus CT 200h hatchback and IS 300h saloon.
Itec operates from 50 offices worldwide, seven of which are in the UK, and aims to reduce its emissions by 50% over the next five years.
Nick Orme, managing director of Itec, said: "We have saved more than £70,000 on contract hire costs and expect to make a similar saving in fuel. Staff have seen their Benefit-in-Kind tax reduced considerably and are enjoying the extra boost to their pay packet at the end of the month."
Council’s company car completion
Leicester City Council has launched a low-emission salary-sacrifice car scheme through Tusker, open to at least 13,600 of its 18,000 employees.
The scheme has recorded 50 orders already.
Tusker’s scheme – SalarySacrifice4Cars – is now in use by more than 140 organisations in the UK, private and public sector.
Supply gap triggering record LCV auction prices – BCA
The average LCV price at auction is 42.97% above the level of five years ago despite being a year older, on average, with 9,000 more miles on the clock, according to British Car Auctions.
Duncan Ward, general manager, Commercial Vehicles, at BCA, said "the key factor driving the market is the supply of good retail quality stock – or rather the lack of it".
Ward said demand stretched from older vans to younger ex-fleet and lease vehicles but warned supply issues could continue to hamper buyers throughout 2014.
St Claire to Fleet Assist
Fleet Assist has appointed Vincent St Claire as its commercial director. The Cambridgeshire-based company provides supply chain management and consultancy for the fleet industry.
St Claire has nearly 30 years fleet industry experience, having been managing director of fleet services provider Alliance Asset Management from 2009 to 2013. Previously, he was commercial director of rental services at the AA, operations director at easyCar and managing director at Arval.
St Claire’s responsibilities will include overseeing Fleet Assist’s recently added outsourced Driver Services. This enables contract hire and fleet management company car and van drivers to book their vehicles in for SMR work at the most cost-effective appropriate location and convenient time.
Vertivia mileage claim
Mileage capture firm Vertivia has observed a 25.7% saving in a company’s total business mileage.
The company attributed the drop to changing driver behaviours following implementation of Vertivia’s mileage management system.
In one field study, Vertivia said a major UK fleet saw driver mileages drop by 5,546 business miles a year per driver. The average fall across the Vertivia fleet was 1,874 business miles a year per driver, or 10.6%.
