Car and van rental company Sixt is currently offering great deal on long term van hire:
This works out at just £32 per day for a long wheelbase Transit – a cracking deal if you won’t be doing too many miles.
It looks like drivers of vans with a maximum weight of under 3.5 tonnes may escape the London Low Emission Zone, at least for the foreseeable future. Restrictions that would effectively ban vans that weren’t Euro III compliant from entering the zone were due to be introduced in October 2010 – but London Mayor Boris Johnson has announced his intention to suspend the introduction of these rules.
LEZ – What’s That?
Anyone who regularly drives in the Greater London area will probably have come across the Low Emission Zone, or LEZ. Most of the space within the M25 falls into the LEZ (click here for a map of the zone), including the M4 Heathrow Spur, the M4 east of Junction 3 and the M1 south of London Gateway Services.
The goal of the LEZ is to reduce the use of older, more polluting large vehicles (vans, buses, lorries and coaches) in the Greater London area. Restrictions put in place in July 2008 mean that lorries, buses and coaches that do not meet the Euro III emissions standard have to pay a daily charge of £200 to enter the zone.
From October 2010, a similar restriction was to be placed on vans weighing up to 3.5 tonnes – a £100 daily charge for vans failing to meet the Euro III emissions standard. (Cars, motorcycles and vans with an unladen weight of under 1.205 tonnes are exempt from the LEZ.)
What Does This Mean For Me?
Most vans made since 2002 do comply with the Euro III standard – and more recent vans meet the later Euro IV or even Euro V standards. For these vehicles, the LEZ has no effect. No registration or permit is required – just ignore it.
Most London van hire companies operate vans under 5 years old, so they will all meet the Euro III standard anyway.
If the proposed suspension of the new rules goes ahead, then it won’t matter what you are driving. However, if it doesn’t, there are likely to be some seriously inconvenienced people. Tradesmen and small businesses operating older vans – perhaps because they do very limited mileage – will have to choose between buying a newer vehicle and paying £100 a day to go about their business. Similarly, any van hire companies operating within the LEZ will have no choice but to replace any non-Euro III vans with newer vehicles.
If you want to check whether a van you drive is compliant with the proposed October 2010 rules, then Transport for London provides an online compliance checker – click here.
The Fiat Fiorino was one of a brace of new small vans that appeared last year. Also new – and based on the same platform – were the Citroen Nemo and Peugeot Bipper.
Despite their unlikely names, these vans are ideally suited for city use and offer a surprisingly capacious loadspace, with a payload of around 600kg and a volume of 2.5 cubic metres. The Fiat Fiorino was voted International Van of the Year at the Hanover commercial vehicle show and based on this review, it’s easy to see why.
Here’s RoadTransport.com’s Julian Milne putting the Fiat Fiorino through its paces:
Sixt is offering its London customers the chance to rent a van for just £29 per day throughout August 2009. Midweek rentals (Monday – Wednesday) for all sized vans are just £29 per day throughout August 2009! OFFER EXPIRED
Whether you require a small Volkswagen Caddy or a large Ford Transit you’ll pay just £29 per day. The deal even includes unlimited mileage so if you plan to use the van for a long journey you won’t be required to pay any additional mileage costs.
With house prices rising again more people are starting to move house. This Sixt offer is ideal if you will be moving house during August and would like to do your own removals (click here for our DIY Removals Guide).
Sixt has 16 van hire branches in London and 165 around the UK – click here to visit Sixt’s website now.
Modec Zero Emission Electric Van
The government-funded trials of electric vans I wrote about back in November 2008 look set to get started in the reasonably near future, according an article published by Fleet News today.
The Department for Transport (DfT) has produced a list of approved electric vehicle suppliers, from which participating businesses can purchase or lease electric vans. Government grants will compensate for the extra cost of the electric vehicles over their diesel equivalents. The three main suppliers are Modec, Smith Electric Vehicles and Allied Vehicles. A hybrid conversion company, Ashwoods, has also been included.
Organisations taking part in the scheme include Royal Mail, Metropolitan Police, the Environment Agency and HMRC, as well as some local authorities.
Source: Fleet News
Renault Trafic - Britain's Most Secure Van?
The Renault Trafic has added another award to its impressive collection – the British Insurance Vehicle Security Award in the Heavy Van category.
It’s the first time that vans have been eligible for the awards, which are based on the industry-standard New Vehicle Security Ratings. The Trafic comes out top thanks to its remarkable level of factory-fit security – which certainly puts my 2001 Transit to shame.
According to Renault, the Trafic comes with security features including anti-drill door locks and barrels, Thatcham category 1 alarm and immobiliser system, remote central locking with deadlocking, full steel bulkheads and R.A.I.D. (Renault Anti Intruder Device), which automatically locks all the vehicles doors once travelling above 5 mph. A three-button key with selective door opening is also available as an option, to combat opportunistic thieves while the vehicle is being unloaded.
LDV duly went into administration recently – following the withdrawal of Malaysian suitors Weststar from a proposed rescue deal.
However, that isn’t likely to be the end of the story. No one wants to pay more than they have to when buying a company and by waiting until LDV went into administration, potential buyers such as Weststar stand to get a much better deal than they would have done previously.
The risk in holding out for the best possible deal, however, is that someone else might beat you to it. In Weststar’s case, the other possible party is Connaught – a company that produces a pioneering aftermarket hybrid conversion kit for vans. The system has been tested by the RAC and is said to produce fuel savings of around 20%.
Connaught’s interest in LDV seems bold but the synergies are obvious – it could sell factory-converted hybrid vans at virtually no cost over the standard vehicle. This would be a unique offering in the mainstream van market at present.
In addition, LDV had reportedly already developed an electric version of the Maxus, providing Connaught with a good basis for developing an all-electric van to compete with existing offerings from the likes of Modec and Smith Electric Vehicles.
Fuel costs and CO2 emissions are increasingly important to van operators, as business conditions remain tough and regulation relating to emissions gets tighter.
Until last year, van manufacturers were extremely reluctant to publish fuel consumption and CO2 emissions data for their vehicles, claiming (with some truth) that they varied too widely depending on usage and loading.
The government, however, was having none of that and insisted that this information be made public. The result can be seen here, on the VCA’s (Vehicle Certification Agency) website. – a free, easy to use and comprehensive database of new van emissions and official fuel consumption figures.
(There was an similar database published by the BVLRA in December 2008, but it seems to have disappeared from their website)
Although these are only official figures, measured under test conditions, at least they are calculated in the same way for each van, so should provide some kind of meaningful comparison.
‘Swappage’ – No Trade-in required
For van owners, the problem with the government’s scrappage scheme was that there aren’t many vans over 10 years old on the roads. Furthermore, the scheme prevented anyone taking part who intended to finance the van using an ‘off balance sheet’ method – an approach favoured by many van operators.
Mercedes-Benz has decided to help these poor souls potential customers out by offering its own ‘Swappage’ scheme – where buyers can get £2,000 off the price of a new Sprinter 311CDi – the most popular model – regardless of how they finance it or whether they have anything to trade in.
Mercedes is meeting the cost of this itself, as it doesn’t qualify for governement scrappage payments, and is offering three finance/acquisition methods for potential buyers – operating lease, contract purchase and regular finance.
For more details, see the RoadTransport.com report here.
LDV Going Down The Pan?
It seemed like they might have had (yet another) saviour, but with the news that Malaysian company Weststar has pulled out of a deal to purchase LDV, the future looks bleak for the Birmingham-based company.
While I don’t like to see manufacturing (or any other) jobs disappearing in the UK, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that LDV just doesn’t deserve to be saved. They haven’t made a profit since time began, and their vans are, frankly, a little bit cheap and cheerful and behind the times.
To be honest, I’d rather that the money the government might spend on LDV is invested in other, already successful van enterprises – like Modec, Smith Electric Vehicles and even Vauxhall, if necessary.
Better still, I’d rather the government didn’t prop up every loss making automotive company unless there was a good reason to.
It seems that Halfords is currently running a 5% discount code for online purchases.
The code is AFF5APR and it is valid until 16th June 2009.
THIS CODE HAS EXPIRED
The discount offer applies to almost all products, except the usual suspects – sat nav, alloys, mp3/iPod and gift vouchers.
Remember, it’s only valid on online purchases made before 16/06/2009 – so if you are planning a purchase, check out Halfords’ prices now to see if you can save money.