Author Archives: Van Rental

Hydrogen Transit To Demo New Hydrogen Filling Stations

Leave a reply

Back in April, I wrote about a new partnership that was promising to deliver workable, cost-effective hydrogen filling stations in the not-too-distant future. ITM Power‘s goal is to develop a commercially-viable hydrogen filling station that actually generates its own hydrogen from water and electricity – not relying on deliveries by tanker lorries.

It seems that progress has already been made towards that goal. ITM Power are currently running a Ford Focus as a hydrogen demonstration vehicle for their filling station design. At present it only has a range (using one charge of hydrogen fuel) of 25 miles, but this can be increased to 100 miles by storing the hydrogen under greater pressure. The vehicle is bi-fuel and can be switched back to petrol whenever necessary.

Next month will see Roush Technologies, the company handling the vehicle engineering side of this project, start using a hydrogen-fuelled Ford Transit to demonstrate the capabilities of the system. The Transit, which features a supercharged 2.3 litre [petrol] engine, will be used to promote the benefits of hydrogen fuel to businesses and other van operators.

The system will be targeted at vans on short delivery runs in urban areas where returning to base to refuel is not an issue and where reduced emissions could well result in tax and operating cost reductions for the van operators.

ITM Power have managed to reduce the cost of the hydrogen fuelling stations by replacing the platinum membrane normally required with a specially-developed polymer. This has a cost of just 1% of the traditional design and is helping bring commercially-viable hydrogen fuel stations closer to reality.

ITM expect to go into volume production of hydrogen filling stations in the next couple of years and expect production units to cost a few thousand pounds. That seems cheap to me – although they will use a sizable amount of electricity, it is easy to imagine attractive cost savings in comparison to diesel.

For more details, see these stories in Logistics Manager and Fleet News.

Mercedes Sprinter Takes Fleet Van Honours Again

1 Reply

It’s no secret that the Mercedes Sprinter is one of the most popular vans in Europe with both drivers and operators. This week it confirmed that reputation with the award of the coveted Motor Transport Fleet Van of the Year award for 2008.

It’s the second consecutive year that the Sprinter has won the award, highlighting just how strong a grip Mercedes has on the large panel van sector. The Motor Transport judges were impressed not only by the vehicle but by the strong support available from the Mercedes-Benz dealer network and by market-leading innovations such as Eco Start, which saves fuel by automatically switching the engine off during idling without jeopardising safety or reliability.

The award was presented at the recent Motor Transport Awards in London and marked the fourth time in six years that the Sprinter has won the Fleet Van of the Year Award!

Van Hire & Sales in Baildon, Shipley & Bradford

Leave a reply

Northway Vehicle Sales is an independent company offering short and long term van hire and commercial  vehicle sales from its base in Baildon, just to the north of Shipley, West Yorkshire.

The company was founded in October 2003 by two experienced commercial vehicle industry professionals and offers a comprehensive range of services. Vans are available for short and long-term hire and Northway can also arrange new vehicle leasing. The company keeps a wide range of used commercial vehicles in stock – they specialise in vehicles under five years of age with service history.

If you’d like to learn more about van hire or sales from Northway Vehicle Sales, visit their website at www.northwayvehiclesales.co.uk or call or email them direct on 01274 588880 / northwayvehicles@msn.com.

Baildon is a small village just to the north of Shipley, which itself is just to the north of Bradford, West Yorkshire.

Biofuels Responsible for 75% of Food Price Increases

Leave a reply

The rush to use food crops to make biofuels has caused 75% of the rise in food prices seen between 2002 and Febuary 2008, according to a new, unpublished World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.

In comparison, the report found that increased energy and fertiliser costs have only been responsible for 15% of food price increases across the same period.

This is a subject I have been concerned about for some time – it’s good to see authoritative, objective support for this coming from such a respected source.

Hopefully both EU and US politicians might start to think a little more carefully about their biofuel policies now – with about half of EU-produced vegetable oil and a third of US corn being used to make biofuels, their incentives have unwittingly distorted global food markets.

An untangling of this mess is urgently needed.

You can read the full report on the Guardian’s website.

Green Van Hire, Carbon Offsetting & Hybrid Sprinter Test Drive

Leave a reply

Rent A Van, Plant A Tree

Green Motion, one of the leading green van hire companies in the UK, has recently announced a partnership with Trees4Good, a carbon-offsetting organisation.

Trees4Good operate tree-planting campaigns in Borneo and Brazil and their partnership with Green Motion will mean that a tree is planted for every customer. The cost of this will be fully-absorbed by Green Motion; unlike some other hire companies, they will not levy an additional charge for this carbon offsetting service.

Green Motion claim that this partnership will enable them to become the world’s first carbon-neutral car and van rental company, as the carbon benefits for each tree planted will more than offset the carbon emissions of each vehicle Green Motion operates during its lifetime with the company.

New Hybrid Mercedes Sprinter Gets Early Test Drive

I’ve been touting hybrids as a way forwards (in preference to biofuels) for some time now and it is encouraging to see how many hybrid vehicles are starting to come to market – or at least get close.

The van market isn’t being left behind and Mercedes are now in the advanced stages of testing and developing a hybrid Sprinter van. Commercial Motor managed to get a test drive of a pre-production model in Germany this week and found it to be a well-developed and competent van.

You can read their first impressions review here.

Europcar4 Vans & National Van Rental – Same Branch Addresses?

Leave a reply

I had an email the other day from a visitor to this site who was puzzled as to why the National and Europcar van hire branches in the location she’d chosen (Sheffield) had the same addresses.

As this is a common question, I thought I would answer it here as well as emailing her back.

Over the last few years, there has been a lot of consolidation within the global car rental industry. One of the changes that has taken place is that Europcar UK Group own the National brand in the UK.

What this means is that the two companies have decided to combine their rental fleets and some of their branches. The result is a combined van fleet of 6000 vehicles and 250 locations across the UK – and 60,000 cars in the UK. In some locations, branches have been combined for efficiency and both companies now list branch offices with the same address.

Sheffield is just one example of this. A few others are Stoke on Trent, Aberdeen and Brighton – but there are many more.

Although the branches are the same, each company still operates its own pricing structure and has slightly different rental policies. This means it is always worth getting a quote from both Europcar and National – don’t assume they will be the same price, as they probably won’t be!

Fancy A New Mk5 Transit? They Make Them In China!

Leave a reply

As the proud owner of a Mk5 Ford Transit, it warmed my heart to find that these magnificent beasts (…) are Mk5 Ford Transitstill being made in China, courtesy of the Jiangling Motors Corporation.

While I am the first to admit that they aren’t the last word in refinement or performance (slow and noisy might be a fairer description) they are excellent, reliable workhorses built in the tradition of older commercial vehicles and designed to take some abuse.

These Chinese Transits look like they should be even better than the original Fords. The cabs seem to be nicely specified and the choice of engines has improved, with a Mitsubishi petrol engine or one of several turbo-diesels to choose from.

According to ChinaKnowledge.com, JMC sold more than 2,500 of Transit-based commercials in May alone – proving that there’s still life in the old dog yet.

You can check out the Jiangling Ford Transits in all their glory here – and be quick, as it looks like JMC are about to leapfrog the Mk6 and go straight to the latest generation Transit – the same one as the European Mk7 Transit.

P.S. The scruffy old nail in the picture above isn’t mine!

Exhaust & Catalytic Converter Theft – What Next?

Leave a reply

I was surprised recently to come across this story in the Scarborough Evening News (of all places!)

Apparently an unsuspecting Ford Transit owner came back to his parked van and found that the exhaust system and catalytic converter had been removed and stolen.

I suspect that these will now be sold for spares – or even scrap metal, but I suppose there is a chance that the thieves needed an identical system for their own van. Whatever the case, it’s a bit of a worry to think that you can’t even rely on your exhaust system still being there when you come back to your parked car or van.

It’s no laughing matter, either – a new exhaust plus catalytic converter is likely to cost the best part of £400, or even more for some models. I feel for the van owner – I don’t think it’s very likely he will get his property back, even if the thieves are caught.

Increased Congestion Hitting UK Business

Leave a reply

Increased congestion is hitting the effectiveness of British businesses, according to a new survey by car and van rental giant Europcar.

70% of the 300 businesses surveyed said that congestion was impacting the efficiency of their staff when travelling for work, with 42% of those who responded saying that up to 20% of business travel time was spent in congested traffic.

80% of those surveyed felt that traffic congestion is getting worse in the UK – no arguments there. David McNeill, Corporate Sales Director at Europcar feels that it’s time for all road users to take responsibility for minimising their contribution to congestion:

“…what this survey has clearly shown is that we must all take responsibility to identify the ways in which we can reduce congestion on our over-stressed road network.  Challenging times lie ahead and the survivors will be those that tighten their belts and explore all the options to work as efficiently as possible.”

Europcar are one of the world’s leading car and van hire companies and their combined UK fleet (which includes National Car & Van Rental) amounts to more than 60,000 cars and vans.

CO2 emissions of new vans to be published – Soon…

Leave a reply

It looks like the BVRLA’s ongoing campaign to persuade van manufacturers to publish their vans’ CO2 emissions may be nearing a triumph.

Back in January I reported on the BVRLA’s (British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association) plans to create a public database of van emissions, similar to that which is already available for cars. From 1st January, 2008, manufacturers have had to give their new vans a CO2 rating – but they aren’t yet required to disclose them.

This has made it difficult for fleet buyers whose businesses may have set emission reduction targets or who may simply wish to try and do their bit for the environment. However, it now appears that the manufacturers have agreed to publish the CO2 ratings of new vans and the Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders (SMMT) is now in discussion with the Department of Transport to bring this about in an effective way – probably “via the Vehicle Certification Agency“, according to BVRLA Director General John Lewis.

The decision has come none too soon; according to the Department for Transport (DfT), vans are now the fastest growing source of CO2 emissions on our roads. With 340,000 new vans hitting the roads last year, it’s not hard to imagine why.

The SMMT is keen to point out that these figures are far from perfect. Unlike cars, whose profile and payload rarely varies significantly, vans can nearly double in weight when loaded and can be typically be specified with different roof heights, for example. Both of these options will affect a van’s CO2 emissions and since CO2 ratings are currently calculated based on rolling road tests with no payload, we can expect the manufacturers’ ratings to be somewhat optimistic for many van users.

The European Commission is planning a consultation exercise to try and work out how to bring more realism to these figures, but this could take years. In the meantime, hats off to the BVRLA, as their six-month campaign has finally bore fruit, providing van operators with some much needed data!