European fleet up in September
Fleet registrations – commercial cars minus car rental – across the five major European markets saw a 4.3% bump in September, according to German car information provider DataForce.
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Although the fleet markets in Italy and Spain were down year-on-year by 7.2% and 13.6% respectively, these were offset by 1.6% growth in Germany, 2.4% growth in France and 9.7% in the UK.
Both Mercedes-Benz and koda saw fleet registrations rise in all five markets.
By segment, the biggest gains were seen in SUVs, up 16.9%, and compact cars, up 12.0%. Compact cars remain the most popular among fleets with 23.5% of the September market and 22.1% of the year-to-September market.
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By GlobalDataWood joins Arval UK corporate sales team
David Wood has joined the corporate sales team of Arval UK, the fleet division of BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions, as business manager.
Wood joins from Lex Autolease and in more than eight years in the fleet sector has held a number of senior sales positions.
Mike Curtis, Arval UK’s corporate sales director, said Wood’s experience and "strong focus on the customer" make him an important addition to the corporate sales team and would support the company’s growth plans.
Marshall Leasing and Ford take prizes at ACFO awards
Marshall Leasing was awarded the Fleet Service Company of the Year award at the UK 2013 ACFO Awards, beating LeasePlan UK which was named runner-up.
At the annual awards, which are voted for by members of the fleet operators’ trade body, the Audi A3 was named Fleet Car of the Year while the Vauxhall Ampera scooped the gong for Green Vehicle of the Year.
Ford cemented its place as the UK fleet market’s favourite supplier of vans with its Transit Connect winning Small Van of the Year for the 11th year in a row and its Transit taking Van of the Year for the 17th time and third time consecutively.
Small van market hits ceiling
Vehicle remarketer Manheim has found overall prices for vans remained static year-on-year and the company believes it may indicate the market has hit a price ceiling.
Manheim found average selling prices for September and October remained stable at £4,250 (5,057) and the indicators of price, mileage and average age were almost identical to 2012.
In addition the firm has begun to see a decline in the price of car derived vans sold at auction from £3,321 to £2,892.
Lex – More than 40% of company car accidents are drivers fault
More than 18,000 of the 43,293 accidents involving company vehicles in the UK in 2012 were due to carelessness on the part of the company car driver, according to Lex Autolease.
The fleet management firm explained those accidents where company car drivers were at fault were split between 8,506 collisions with static objects , 9,016 collisions with third-party vehicles and 844 collisions with pedestrians, cyclists or animals. The other 24,927 incidents were either not the fault of the company car driver or listed as ‘unknown circumstances’.
The average cost of each accident – repairs, liabilities, replacement vehicles – was £1,033; with Lex customers paying out in excess of £18.6m as a result of poor employee driving.
