Happy Christmas!From all of use at vanrental.co.uk, thanks for your interest and support in 2015.
This will probably be the last blog post of the year, as it’s time for me to head off for some mince pies and mulled wine!
Best wishes for a safe and happy festive season from all at vanrental.co.uk.
Ford Transits and the AA go together like turkey and Christmas pudding. This close relationship is set to continue with Ford set to deliver more than 550 Ford Transit Custom and Courier vans to the AA.
In doing so, Ford will maintain its 50 per cent share of the motoring organisation’s distinctive 3,000-vehicle fleet.
The bulk of the AA’s order is for Ford Transit Custom, with around 400 being fitted by Ambrosetti UK with the AA’s new recovery trailer system, heavy duty electrical systems, special equipment racking and the organisation’s trademark yellow livery.
In one of the largest orders to date for the recently launched Ford Transit Courier, the AA is taking 70 examples for use by agents selling memberships across the UK.
A further 70 Ford Transit Custom models are equipped as AA Battery Assist vehicles which carry a wide range of replacement batteries and offer a 24/7 roadside fitment service for AA members. There will also be nine Ford Transit Customs kitted out as AA Fuel Assist vehicles, on call to members who have misfuelled their car.
This year’s order takes the AA’s total delivery of Ford Transit Custom models to almost 850 in the two years since the van was launched. It’s a popular choice among the AA’s technicians, according to AA commercial vehicle fleet engineer Chris Wiltshire:
“Ford Transit Custom is very well received. Technicians like the working space, the cab and driving position, and we like it for the best load area in class, enhanced towing capacity and very good whole-life costs.”
With a fleet this large, it makes sense to operate more than one marque of vehicle in order to reduce the risk of any fleet-wide problems and to keep your suppliers on their toes.
The AA has also been a big buyer of Vauxhall Vivaro and Volkswagen Transporter vans over the years. The Transporter seems to be popular at the moment — back in July VW received a 500-van order for new Transporter patrol vans.
Waste management specialist Biffa has launched a new 24/7 emergency waste service which provides a single point of contact for customers who need to get rid of unplanned waste quickly.
This isn’t something I’ve thought about before, but it turns out that there are quite a few ways in which organisations can suddenly be stuck with waste that needs rapid removal. Here are a few examples from Biffa’s website:
It’s easy to see how a company could need to get rid of such waste fast or else face costly operational disruption, health and safety issues or potential pollution problems.
The bulk of the OneCall services will be delivered by Biffa’s fleet of refuse collection vehicles and other trucks, but Biffa needed to enhance the capabilities of its mobile fleet of service technicians and workshop managers.
Biffa was also seeking a highly visible way of promoting the new OneCall service to potential customers. A new fleet of Mercedes vans met both requirements. The firm is taking delivery of a number of new Sprinter vans featuring a striking red and black OneCall livery, as part of a larger fleet order.
The new OneCall Sprinters are 313 CDI models with all-over vinyl wrap liveries.
In addition to the four Biffa OneCall vehicles, Intercounty Truck & Van has supplied its high-profile customer with 15 Medium-length Sprinter 313 CDIs, six New Vito 111 CDI crew vans, four New Vito 111 CDI vans, 10 Citan 111 CDI Longs and six Extra-long Citan 111 CDI crew vans with second rows of seats, allowing each to carry a driver and up to four passengers.
Like a number of other companies, Biffa is finding that the ability to choose from three sizes of Mercedes van means that operational requirements can be met efficiently without needing a mixed-marque fleet of vans.
Will Gallagher, Biffa’s Supply Chain & Logisitics Category Manager, explains:
“The fact that we can now buy Mercedes-Benz vans in three different sizes is very helpful. Our mobile engineers are called into action on a variety of jobs so it’s a big advantage having the right vehicle for each task.
“The Sprinter, New Vito and Citan are all comfortable, safe and well-liked by those who drive them, while we are also very happy with the service we receive from the Dealer and the manufacturer.”
You can find out more about the Biffa OneCall service here.
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Continued growth in the number of onshore wind farms is seeing engineering giant Siemens expand its wind turbine engineering support team once more.
With more engineers comes a need for more vans, in this case vans with all-wheel drive and off-road capacity. Although a previous purchase was of Sprinter 4×4 vans, this time round Siemens has opted for Volkswagen Transporter 4MOTION vans, 20 of which will shortly be joining its UK fleet.
According to Siemens, the fuel efficiency of the Transporter BlueMotion was a key factor, as was the van’s load capacity and 4-wheel drive option. Each Transporter has been equipped with bespoke racking to carry the equipment and spare parts essential for the commissioning and up-keep of the turbines.
Vans haven’t always scored very well in the Euro NCAP safety tests, but this situation is improving.
The new Toyota/Peugeot/Citroën joint venture van and minibus has scored 5 stars in the latest round of Euro NCAP tests.
The new Peugeot Traveller is the MPV version of the new Expert van. It scored 5 stars in the latest round of Euro NCAP safety tests and will also be sold badged as the Toyota Proace and Citroen Dispatch.
Before I go any further, I should point out that these tests were performed on the MPV/minibus version of the van, as is normal for Euro NCAP. But I think it’s fair to say that the majority of the findings apply equally to vans, except perhaps for some comments on passenger safety.
Getting back to the test results, the vans concerned are the new versions of the:
These are all essentially the same vehicle, so the Euro NCAP tests only tested one of them, the Peugeot Traveller 2.0 diesel ‘Navette’ (the Traveller is the MPV version of the Expert van).
The test scores are encouraging:
While the occupants were well protected, pedestrians did fare less well as it is commonly the case with larger, taller vehicles. Euro NCAP described the protection offered to the head of a struck pedestrian as “mixed”. This is presumably an inevitable result of the raised and more vertical windscreen and bonnet of a van, compared to a car.
There was also good news in the safety assist category. Safety systems are an area where vans have lacked woefully behind cars until very recently. The Expert scored a reasonable 5.5 points from a possible 7 thanks to a standard fit Electronic Stability Control (ESC), seat belt reminders for driver and front passengers and a driver-set speed limiter.
Other safety systems such as Lane Assist are available as cost options but weren’t fitted to the test vehicle or considered in these tests, which focused on the standard base specification.
Overall, it’s a good result for the new Peugeot/Citroën/Toyota van, and a sign of van manufacturer’s continued efforts to bring their vans up to the same safety standard as modern cars.
If the UK’s commercial vehicle manufacturing output is anything to go by, a European economic recovery is starting to take hold.
The reason I say this is that according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), UK CV exports rose by 79.1% to 5,131 units in November, up from 2,865 in November last year. Most of these exports go to EU countries.
Inded, so big was the rise in demand from EU countries that a 12.5% fall in demand from UK buyers went almost unnoticed. The UK’s total CV production rose by 24.6% in November to 8,813 units.
| CV manufacturing | Nov-14 | Nov-15 | % Change | YTD-14 | YTD-15 | % Change |
| Total | 7,073 | 8,813 | 24.6% | 65,054 | 88,214 | 35.6% |
| Home | 4,208 | 3,682 | -12.5% | 33,054 | 44,292 | 34.0% |
| Export | 2,865 | 5,131 | 79.1% | 32,000 | 43,922 | 37.3% |
| % export | 40.5% | 58.2% | 49.2% | 49.8% |
Data courtesy of SMMT
Commenting on the figures, Mike Hawes, SMMT Chief Executive said:
“The recovery in UK CV manufacturing this year has been good to see, with consistently strong growth in almost every month. November’s performance was driven principally by production for export, underlining the importance of the EU as the sector’s key overseas market.”
What’s interesting about the figures in the table above is that if you ignore the monthly data and focus on the year-to-date (YTD) figures, you can see that growth in demand has been pretty equal across the UK and export markets, at about 35%. It’s only the timing that has been different. This is also evident from the graph below:
UK CV output: rolling year totals from November 2008 to November 2015 (courtesy of SMMT)
It will be interesting to see where output levels out — i.e. how much volume production capacity is left in the UK following the closure of Ford’s Transit plant in Southampton in 2013.
The average auction sale value of a used van rose by £123 to £5,777 in November, according to auctioneers BCA:
| All vans | Avg Age (mnths) | Avg Mileage | Avg Value | Sale vs CAP |
| Nov 2014 | 57.75 | 78,858 | £5,615 | 102.71% |
| Nov 2015 | 55.75 | 75,764 | £5,777 | 100.17% |
Data courtesy of BCA
The figure is 2.1% higher than October and 2.8% higher than November 2014. However, this isn’t necessarily as inflationary as it seems.
On average, vans sold by BCA in November were two months younger and had driven 2,000 miles fewer than in November last year. Once these factors are adjusted for I’d guess that prices were probably fairly flat, in real terms.
The decreasing age and mileage profile of the used vans going through BCA’s salerooms does suggest that the backlog of older vans which were not replaced during the recession is now starting to disappear. If the average age continues to fall, then I think it’s reasonable to assume that fleet replacement cycles are getting back to normal.
The new 4th generation Volkswagen Caddy is now available with a choice of three petrol engines.
It seems the tide is finally turning in favour of common sense and lower emissions for urban vans.
One of the pioneers of modern diesel engines, Volkswagen, as announced that the current 4th-generation Caddy van and the Transporter-based Caravelle people carrier will be available with petrol engines.
The move does of course come in the wake of the diesel emissions scandal, which has hit VW sales hard. The German group lost 2% of its European market share in November, according to figures released earlier this week by Acea, the European manufacturers’ body.
Personally, I don’t think this will do VW much long-term harm, but this scandal has served a useful purpose — diesel emissions are a problem and for urban or low-mileage use, petrol (or electric) makes much more sense.
Rant aside, here are the details of the new engine choices.
VW Caddy petrol engines (all Euro 6):
Prices start from £13,610 +VAT for the 1.2 TSU 84PS 5-speed Caddy panel van in Startline Trim
VW Caravelle SE SWB petrol engine choices (Euro 6):
Prices start from £28,950 for the 2.0TSI 150PS 6-speed manual Caravelle SE short wheelbase.