Thursday, March 7 2013
Sat-Nav giant, Tom-Tom, has announced it is joining forces with Mercedes-Benz and will soon be equipping the manufacturer’s vehicles with its HD Traffic Sat-Nav system. The system will be available for customers in twelve countries throughout Europe this summer, with real-time traffic info included in the high-end Command Navigation system. Charles Cautley, MD of Tom-Tom [...]
Friday, March 1 2013
A recent survey conducted by Nissan has revealed the most common concerns amongst LCV owners, in a bid to understand the challenges faced for van drivers. At the top of the survey, perhaps unsurprisingly, came fuel costs. With fuel prices climbing week on week, 75% of the owners asked said they would be happy to [...]
Friday, February 22 2013
Roadside Recovery firm, Allianz Global Assistance, has ordered seventy-nine specially-converted Volkswagen Transporters in a deal worth £1.75 million. Birmingham Volkswagen Van Centre will supply the vans. Each of the Transporters has been converted to carry all the necessary equipment that the company needs, including an Intertrade Engineering braked compact recovery trailer, a dedicated storage area [...]
Wednesday, January 23 2013
The FTA has announced it will be holding three Van Excellence conferences this year, with each session focussing on a wide variety of van operating issues. The scheduled dates so far are: Sheffield – 2nd May Slough – 19th May Dunblane – 29th October The key topics in each seminar will be: Managing road risk [...]
Tuesday, November 6 2012
The new van market isn’t doing too well these days, with the majority of manufacturers losing out on sales and year to date figures, which are down by 8.1%. October sales fell from 19,370 to 17,794, which in turn caused the year to date figures to decrease by 8.1%; from 219,054 units to just 204,861. [...]
Wednesday, September 26 2012
Isuzu Truck has added a new member to its dealer network with the appointment of AK Commercials in Bristol, which is to become its latest parts and service dealer in the South West. The dealer employs eleven staff members and has complete workshop facilities including a mobile service and parts recovery vehicle. Kevin Archer, from [...]
Monday, September 10 2012
Despite van sales looking up in July, it appears they faced another slump in August, with registrations dropping by 12.5% compared with figures for the same time in 2011. Of the top three van manufacturers: Ford, Volkswagen and Vauxhall, Ford experienced a fall of 23.5% compared with 2011 figures, while Volkswagen registrations reduced by 23.9%. [...]
Tuesday, July 10 2012
It has been alleged, following an investigation by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) that Mercedes-Benz and five commercial vehicle dealers have been involved in price-fixing and infringements of competition laws. There are said to have been at least five incidents which breached competition laws, these are said to have involved: market sharing, price coordination [...]
Tuesday, June 19 2012
As usual in the summer months, the wholesale van market slows considerably- particularly so this year on account of important national and international events taking priority. But what’s best to do in this market lull? James Davis, director of Commercial Vehicles at Manheim Remarketing has given these insights: “We’ll have to wait and see the [...]
Monday, June 11 2012
Figures show that for the first time this year, van sales had achieved growth. Up 6.7% on sales figures from last May, it seems the market has seen a welcome surge. However, numbers are still down for the year so far in comparison with the same time period last year. Whilst it’s fantastic that the [...]
Thursday, May 31 2012
Across the EU, demand for commercial vehicles has dropped almost 12% over the past year. This includes sales of CVs which have also dropped off significantly since the beginning of 2011. We’re not sure what this means for commercial vehicles, but we’re sure it has a whole lot to do with the current financial climate. [...]
Wednesday, February 15 2012
Manheim Remarketing has reported that average used van values fell by 1.3% in 2011 from figures in 2010. However, closer inspection of the figures revealed that certain sectors of the market did show a rise in average values. For example, car-derived vans climbed 2% to £2,611 whilst small panel vans increased by 9.7% to £4,273 [...]
Tuesday, January 10 2012
According to the SMMT, Light Commercial vehicle registrations for 2011 stood at 260,153- 16.7% up on 2010’s figures (222,915). Individual manufacturer sales figures for 2011 put Ford firmly in the top spot- taking a 27% overall market share following sales of 70,226. Vauxhall represented 12.9% of the market with sales of 33,514, ahead of VW [...]
Monday, January 2 2012
Vauxhall are offering special discounts to owners of LCVs more than seven years old which don’t fit the criteria for London’s Low Emission Zone levels. The swappage scheme is being operated throughout all 35 retailers in the Vauxhall London Retail Group network, extending across almost the entire LCV range. Van drivers can get £3,000 off [...]
Monday, January 2 2012
Renault UK is shutting down some of its dealerships and cutting loss-making vans from its 2012 range. On the light commercial side of the business, only the Kangoo Compact is to be axed- but this will be countered by the introduction of three all-electric Z.E. models throughout 2012; Fluence, Twizy and Zoe, in addition to [...]