Author Archives: Van Rental

Renault confirms launch price for new Master van

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2014 New Renault Master

The new Renault Master

Renault has confirmed the launch price and specification details for the UK version of the new Master large van. Ordering is now open, and the first UK deliveries are expected in September.

In the UK, prices for the New Master will start from £21,120 for the basic panel van models, excluding VAT & OTR charges. Crew Van models will start from £27,000, and while conversion models will start from £23,300.

The initial range will comprise short, medium and long wheelbase panel vans, medium wheelbase crew vans (seven seats), and a large range of medium and long wheelbase conversions including chassis cabs, tippers, dropsides (all in single and double cabs), platform cabs, box vans and Luton models.

Vans will be available in front- or rear-wheel-drive, including a new long wheelbase single rear-wheel drive model aimed at couriers, and four GVW weights: 2,800kg, 3,300kg, 3,500kg or 4500kg.

Panel vans will offer a choice of low, medium or high roof, with load volume of up to 17m3 (panel van), 22m3 (box van).

There will be two trim levels, Business and Business+, and there will be a total of five diesel engines options across the range, including three ENERGY versions, such as the new Twin Turbo dCi 165, which offers fuel economy of up to 40.9 mpg (combined) and CO2 emissions of 180g/km.

Drivers will be able to choose from six-speed manual or Quickshift6 transmission options, and new core equipment includes: DAB radio with CD player, ESC with Grip Xtend, Hill Start Assist and Trailer Swing Assist.

UK order books are open now, first deliveries are expected in September.

Used van prices pass pre-recession peak

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Manheim logoUsed van prices have now risen above the peak pre-recession levels seen in 2006, according to auction specialist, Manheim.

The firm extended its usual five-year reporting window to eight years, in order to compare today’s market conditions with those before the financial crisis.

The resulting analysis shows that despite vans being an average of nine months older, with 12,000 more miles on the clock, buyers in auction halls and online in 2014 are having to bid an average of 45%, or £1,500, more than they would back in 2006 to secure them.

Of course, one explanation for this is that cash-strapped businesses have been finding it difficult to get finance and have chosen to buy used, for cash, rather than buy new. New van registrations have been weak for much of the last six years, and are only now beginning to get close to the 2007 level of 300,000+ new vans per year.

The fall in new sales created a corresponding surge in demand for used vans, but Matthew Davock, head of light commercial vehicles at Manheim, says that despite this, the firm didn’t expect used van values to rise so strongly:

“2006 and 2007 were widely acknowledged as the “boom” years in the new and used van markets. When new van registrations collapsed by 50% in 2009 a corresponding used van supply time bomb was set.

So, when combining this with subsequent “bust” and post recessionary recovery and the critical reliance on commercial vehicles by UK Plc, perhaps it is of little surprise to see that the used market has surged. What is so remarkable is that, despite considerable increases in average mileage and age we have witnessed such an inflation of used van values.”

Manheim is now expecting average selling prices to remain broadly stable over the next 12-18 months, as the firm’s head of commercial vehicles, James Davis, explains:

“The only destabilising market factor will be a significant increase in supply over an extended period; yet there are few signs that de-fleet volumes will track this way over the next 12 to 18 months.

Instead I believe it more likely that we’ll see a steady increase due to both economic recovery and new registration growth. This, combined with a corresponding reduction in the number of extended vans, will see average age fall. Given the last 8 years these two may even balance each other out resulting in the average selling price remaining at the current levels.”

I agree with Mr Davis’ logic, but I think it’s also worth considering how many buyers will shift from buying used to buying new — this could accelerate the creation of a supply surplus in the used market and create price weakness slightly earlier than expected.

Van registrations top 1,000 per day in June — monthly total up 33%

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More than 1,000 new vans were registered every day in June, according to the latest figures from the SMMT, leaving new registrations up by 33% on the same period last year, at 30,712.

June’s strong performance means that year-to-date van registrations are up by nearly 17% on last year, while rolling year registrations (the last twelve months compared the preceding twelve months) are up by 16%, continuing the strong growth seen already this year.

Van and truck registrations -- June 2014

Van and truck registrations rolling year January 2010 – June 2014. Vans are the dark blue line ( graph courtesy of SMMT)

Mike Hawes, the SMMT chief executive, says that the van market has outperformed expectations so far this year:

“The van market has shown another strong performance in June, yielding higher-than-expected growth for the year so far. This has helped the total commercial vehicle market achieve half-year growth of more than 11%, despite a somewhat depressed truck sector.”

Truck sales had their day in the sun last year, ahead of the introduction of Euro 6 legislation, but dealers have paid the price this year, with sales down by 23% so far this year compared to the first six months of 2013.

Which vans are selling?

Drilling down further into the van results, it seems that sales are strongest in the 2.0t – 2.5t and 2.5t – 3.5t sectors, which include models such as the Ford Transit Connect, Ford Transit Custom and Mercedes-Benz Sprinter — traditional fleet workhorses.

Registrations of vans between 2.0t and 2.5t have risen by 36.9% to 27,011 so far this year, while sales of larger models (2.5t – 3.5t) have risen by 19.4%, to 87,598 units.

Could Uber-style van app slash demand for van hire?

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Traffic light at amberAnyone who was in London on 11 June is likely to have found that the capital’s traffic was even worse than usual, thanks to a protest by the capital’s black cab drivers, who parked up in Trafalgar Square to complain about the in-roads being made into their archaic and closed-shop business practices by mobile phone app Uber.

[Uber is an app that allows anyone needing a taxi to use their phone’s GPS to find the nearest available taxi (normally a minicab), book it, and pay for it, if necessary.]

Uber’s makers says that it improves the efficiency of taxi networks in dense urban areas, and I’d tend to agree. Black cab drivers, of course, are opposed, as the growing popularity of Uber means that more drivers are using their phones to summon minicab taxis, rather than walking the streets looking for a black cab.

Uber for vans?

In the UK, services such as Uber are restricted to passenger transport — but in Hong Kong, a new startup, GoGoVan, is doing the same thing for urban freight services.

The premise behind the business is that while some businesses have their own dedicated fleet of vehicles, many don’t, and rely on ‘man and van’ services, couriers and daily-rented vans to collect and deliver goods around large cities. According to the firm’s chairman, Gabriel Fong, in Hong Kong, 35,000 of the city-state’s 70,000 registered vans are essentially owner-operator or small courier companies. Historically, they’ve relied on telephone-based call centres for business, but the GoGoVan app speeds means that drivers can receive instructions much faster and with far greater geographic accuracy — meaning they can sometimes be at the job within minutes.

The company gathers feedback on each job and rates drivers, removing any who consistently fail to meet the required standards.

Could it work in the UK?

So could this model work in the UK? GoGoVan has already expanded to Singapore and recently secured a ‘seven figure’ round of funding and is targeting international expansion within the Asia-Pacific region, into cities such as Tokyo and Seoul. I can see how it could work in Europe, with the proviso that, in the UK at least, we don’t have the same culture of ‘calling a van’ like we call a taxi.

In my experience, most businesses have direct relationships with courier and light haulage companies — call centre-based services such as those with which GoGoVan is competing are less common, although the rise of parcel websites such as MyParcelDelivery.com is perhaps a sign that this might be changing.

After all, as long as the price and service are right, who cares who the provider is?

Naturally, this might have a damaging effect on the self-drive van hire business in urban areas — after all, if you could call up a van with driver on your phone within, say, half an hour, you might not go to the trouble of hiring a van for the day to drive yourself…

Volkswagen Transporter celebrates 60 years of UK deliveries (and dreams)

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VW Transporter T1 with T5

The original VW Transporter T1 with today’s T5 model

Seven years ago, in 2007, the Volkswagen Transporter celebrated its 60th birthday.

2014 marks the 60th anniversary of the first UK versions of this iconic vehicle, which was launched to UK buyers at the Earls Court Commercial Motor Show in 1954. UK sales in the Transporter T1’s first year totalled just 786, but they’ve risen steadily, and in 2013, VW sold 18,350 Transporter T5 models in the UK.

Although there are other vans that can do the same job as the Transporter, very few — except perhaps the Ford Transit — have ever come close to the Transporter in terms of image and desirability.

Here in the UK, we’ve taken the Transporter to your heart, but the British connection goes back to the van’s very conception, in war-torn post-WWII Germany.

Major Ivan Hirst – a senior British army officer placed in charge of re-commissioning the post-war Volkswagen factory. He ordered the creation of a flat-bed truck – dubbed the Plattenwagen – to move parts around the factory. The innovative truck soon caught the eye of visiting Dutch importer Ben Pon in the mid-1940s, who proposed the idea of a more developed panel van version.

VW Transporter T1, T2 and T3 models

Volkswagen Transporter T1, T2 and T3 models. The T3 was the last rear-engined model.

The idea was welcomed by Volkswagen, but the firm wasn’t able to put it into production until the late 1940s, when it made the journey from drawing board to production line in an astonishingly short 13 months — a gestation period that would be unthinkable today.

Having quickly established its superiority over its rivals, the T1 became the template for light commercial panel vans, pick-ups and microbuses – selling strongly for 17 years.

Such was the brilliance of the original that the T2 that replaced it in 1967 retained much of its underpinnings. Even the boxy third-generation T3 that appeared in 1979 employed the neatly balanced, load-friendly rear engine layout of the original.

Indeed, it wasn’t until the fourth-generation T4 arrived in 1990 that Volkswagen switched to the now familiar front-engine, front-wheel drive layout. And just as the original had done in 1954, the T4 set new standards for refinement, quality and flexibility.

The fifth-generation Transporter T5 appeared in 2003, and raised the bar even higher with an even bigger load area, broader range and a host of advanced new technologies.

Scottish van hire firm opts for 100 Mercedes-Benz Citans

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TIN Vehicle Rental Mercedes CitansScotland’s leading business van hire specialist, TOM Vehicle Rental, has taken delivery of 100 new Mercedes-Benz Citan small vans.

Supplied by Dealer Mercedes-Benz Commercial Vehicles Ayr, the latest additions to the TOM fleet are all 109 CDI models powered by high-torque 1.4-litre engines rated at 90 hp. Customers can choose between Long and Extra-long versions, according to their cargo-carrying requirements.

To enable its customers to benefit from improved fuel efficiency and a lower carbon footprint, TOM chose BlueEFFICIENCY specification for a significant proportion of the new Citans.

The Citan BlueEFFICIENCY offers an economy figure of 65.7 mpg, and CO2 emissions as low as 112 g/km, thanks to features including low rolling-resistance tyres, an optimised battery and alternator management system, and the ECO start/stop function, which automatically cuts the engine when the vehicle is stationary and restarts it as the driver prepares to move off.

TOM Group Operations Director James Rafferty says:

“As a rental operator we want vehicles which are reliable and cost-effective over their whole life. The Citan offers a class-leading warranty which will protect our maintenance position and ensure that we are covered for the working life of the vehicle.

“Equally important, the Citan is also extremely fuel-efficient, which makes it a highly attractive proposition for customers – these new vans are already proving very popular, with many having been snapped up for long-term contracts by established customers.”

TOM was founded in Airdrie some 20 years ago, and still has headquarters in the town. The firm only hires vehicles to business users and now has a fleet of more than 6,000 vehicles, the vast majority of them vans.

A market leader in Scotland, TOM last year opened a depot in Trafford Park, Manchester, and continues to march southwards, recently picking up business as far away as London.

The Mercedes-Benz Citan is the manufacturer’s first small van and has a volume carrying capacity of up to 3.8 m³, with a maximum payload potential of 735 kg. Citan panel vans are also available in Compact length, while the Citan Traveliner is based on the Long wheelbase and has a folding rear bench seat, allowing it to carry the driver and up to four passengers. The Citan Dualiner has the same seating configuration but, because it is based on the Extra-long format, also offers a practical cargo space.

New Ford Courier scores 4 stars in Euro NCAP test

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All-new Ford Transit Courier

The new Ford Transit Courier — the passenger version of this model, the Tourneo Courier, has earned a respectable 4-star Euro NCAP safety score.

Despite their size, vans have lagged behind cars in terms of safety for many years, rarely scoring highly in Euro NCAP safety tests in MPV guise (commercial vans aren’t tested).

However, over the last year that’s begun to change, with the passenger-carrying variants of several new van models achieving four or even five-star Euro NCAP test scores.

The latest van-based model to be submitted to Euro NCAP’s demanding test schedule is the Ford Tourneo Courier, the MPV version of the all-new Ford Transit Courier van.

The Tourneo Courier managed a 4-star Euro NCAP score — a strong result where the main weakness was a disappointing 56% score in the ‘safety assist’ category.

This is a reminder that even the newest van models tend to have fewer safety systems that equivalent cars. In the case of the Tourneo Courier, the weak score was due to the lack of any option for autonomous braking (e.g. rear-end collision avoidance) and lane departure warning systems, both of which are becoming common options in new car models.

However, the Courier’s pedestrian safety score was good, at 74%, showing that van manufacturers have made progress in this area — a traditional weakness for commercial vehicles. Similarly, child and adult occupant safety were very strong, with scores of 84% in both categories.

The new Ford Transit Custom earned a five-star score last year in Tourneo guise — this latest result suggests that Ford’s focus on LCV safety is continuing and bodes well for the van market as a whole.

Save up to 10% on SIXT Van Hire – EXCLUSIVE [EXPIRED]

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SAVE up to 10% on SIXT van rental — EXCLUSIVE to vanrental.co.uk

That’s right — thanks to the generosity of the good folks at SIXT, we can offer you access to an exclusive discount of up to 10% on SIXT’s standard van rental rates this week.

If you’re moving house, planning a trip to the tip or perhaps a major outing to a famous Swedish furniture store, this is what you need!

Here are the details:

THIS OFFER HAS NOW EXPIRED

Offer: Save up to 10% on SIXT van rental

Valid from: 23 June 2014

Expires: 29 June 2014

Discount code (this is automatically applied when you click through on the link below): SIXT09VAN

 

Commercial vehicle production down 32% in May, but is there light at the end of the tunnel?

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Will we soon see an end to the restructuring-induced decline in UK commercial vehicle manufacturing? CV output from UK factories fell by a cringe-inducing 32% in May compared to the same period last year, according to the latest SMMT figures, but SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes believes that when last year’s cuts drop out of the monthly figures this summer, we could see a rosier picture:

“UK commercial vehicle output continued to feel the effects of last year’s production restructuring with volumes down 32% in May. There is light at the end of the tunnel, however, as we look forward to the end of this impact in late summer,” said Mike Hawes, SMMT Chief Executive. “The next few months will also see new models rolling off UK assembly lines, which will help boost production numbers.”

Here are the latest UK CV production figures:

CV manufacturing May-13 May-14 % Change YTD-13 YTD-14 % Change
Total 7,560 5,127 -32.2% 40,037 30,917 -22.8%
Home 3,662 2,937 -19.8% 20,227 15,349 -24.1%
Export 3,898 2,190 -43.8% 19,810 15,568 -21.4%
% export 51.6% 42.7% 49.5% 50.4%

Data courtesy of SMMT (www.smmt.co.uk)

It’s certainly true that the introduction of the new Luton-built Vauxhall Vivaro could trigger a surge of sales from patriotic buyers who’ve been holding off replacing their old vans until the new model is available, but what Mr Hawes is really talking about is what the financial industry likes to call ‘rebasing’ — getting used to a new [lower] normal.

In other words, it’s now structurally impossible for CV manufacturing to rise to the levels seen in 2008, or even 2012. The best we can hope for is that the relentless decline shown on these graphs comes to a halt soon:

UK CV manufacturing May 2014

Rolling year CV output (left) and CV output year-to-date (right), courtesy of SMMT

Will that downward slope flatten out soon?