Unique Auto

Posts Tagged ‘vans’

Lots of people dream of making it happen, though much fewer actually follow through with it. Packing up a campervan with all your essentials, saying goodbye to friends and family, and hitting the open road with only a vague idea of where you are going and for how long. You can see places and people that you would never have been able to if you took a standard touristy holiday and it is well worth doing at least once in your life, but what are the most important things to get right.

Van. There have been some nightmare stories of people failing to taking out reliable lease vans deals and the van dying within the first few miles.If this is not some that appeals to you then it’s advisable to either purchase van and have it looked over by a professional or alternatively hire or lease a van from a well established company. Mercedes van leasing is a pretty good option as these vans are pretty sturdy and rarely break down, but always give them a good drive before you set off on your trip just to make sure everything works properly.

Money.Getting your finances sorted for your trip is no easy task as things tend to pop up that you didn’t expect. You’ll have to take a certain amount of money for the essentials like food, drink and gas, but its well worth leaving some aside as a back up. It makes a lot of sense to keep some cash for emergencies and things that you can’t plan for, such as having to pay for a new windscreen after a bird decides to try and fly through it. It is also worth taking a credit card for times when you need to get your hands on larger sums of money.

Time. So you’ve got your Citroen van leasing sorted, you’ve packed it all up, now all you need is a relaxed state of mind. This is vital if you are going to enjoy yourself, as you can never account for the various hold-ups and distractions that will take place along the way on your travels. If you can free yourself from time you’ll have a much better one for sure.

The van and truck sector of the motoring industry is the latest to release some bad news. Figures for truck registrations in June show falling registrations, however, van registrations are showing improvement.

The number of trucks being registered has been declining month on month and the figures released for June show the greatest fall so far. With the amount of trucks being registered last month only amounting to 2,761, this is a 47% fall in registrations from the same time last year.

On the other side of the sector, the amount of vans being registered has seen some improvment. The amount of vans being registered reached 17,158 units. These level of sales show 40.1% fall in registrations from June 2008, however, this month on month fall is actually the smallest so far. This could mean that the amount of van sales could be levelling out.

There were a couple of manufacturers that did well in June, one of those was Renault. They managed a 78.5% rise in sales for their vans and light trucks during June. One model that did well for Renault is their very popular Renault Trafic van. The Trafic van, which is currently Renault’s best selling van, recently won the first 2009 Security Award.

The general fall of van and truck sales can be put down to a number of reasons. One reason is that many businesses are waiting to see if van and truck prices continue to fall before buying. Although the amount of companies buying vans is falling, the amount of van leasing companies buying vans is on the rise, this is because the companies that aren’t buying vans are choosing to lease vans instead.

Many companies are finding that getting out a Renault van lease is working out cheaper in the long run rather than buying a brand new van. So if you are looking for a Renault Trafic lease, you will often get a better deal because you are only paying monthly for the van, rather than paying a bulk sum for a new van.

Although a number of companies are holding off on buying their own vans and trucks causing a fall in overall sales of vehicles, the amount being bought by leasing companies is on the rise.

Find the most ideal vans for your business that are within your price range and come with all the features you need is no easy task.

However, this decision is made a lot simpler with the Renault Trafic. The Trafic is currently Renault’s best selling van and it recently won a 2009 Security Award. The van won the award at the 2009 British Insurance Vehicle Security Awards, it was only this year that vans were included into the awards, making Renault’s achievement even more special.

The van was given the award due to the large number of security features that the van contains. Anti-drill door locks, Thatcham category one alarm and remote central locking with deadlocking are all just a few of the security features that are included in the Trafic van. The Renault Anti Intruder Device is also included on the van, what this does is once the van travels faster than 5mph, all the doors automatically lock.

The Trafic van is one of the most successful vans for businesses, not just to Renault. The big downside to this van model is the price, at £17,000 for the standard van model. However, there are ways to get your business using this van without paying the full price, and that is van leasing.

By taking out a Renault van lease, you can seriously save some money for your business, while still getting the latest model Trafic vans. With a Renault Trafic lease you pay a monthly fee for the van rather than paying £17,000 for your own van, plus you still get to benefit from the huge number of security features that come with the Trafic van.

Many businesses have found that by leasing your vehicles, you can save a large amount of money for your business. Particularly for new companies, rather than having big new vehicle bills hanging over your head, you simply pay monthly for as long as you want to use the van for. Leasing is a great way to supply your business with the best vans at an ideal price.

Modec, a Coventry based electric van company, announced yesterday that they had won a contract with a French van distributor for £3m. This news closely followed the announcement that their urban delivery van was the first to gain EC Whole Vehicle Type Approval. What this means is that the delivery van can be sold to any EU country without having to go through more tests.

Tesco’s, UPS, FedEx and Center Parcs are just a few of Modec’s UK clients. Modec can now add ElecTruckCity to their client list.

ElecTruckCity will now be the first French van distributor to stock Modec vans. Bill Gillespie, chief executive of Modec, said this about the deal: “International demand for Modec is extremely strong. ElecTruckCity has taken the first step by setting up a distribution network in France and we are very excited about the future of the French market.”

The vans that were bought by ElecTruckCity were the popular urban delivery vans. Modec currently have over 150 delivery vans around the streets of the UK, owned by a number of clients including Center Parcs. These Modec delivery vans are becoming ever more popular because they have been design for the city. The urban delivery van costs around 15p per mile, compared to 37p for a petrol powered van, and can traval 100 miles using the lithium battery.

The vans also can save more than 9 tonnes of CO2 every year which can help companies like Tesco reduce their emmissions.

As these Modec vans become ever more popular, it appears that the common vans that you see around like Citroen vans or Nissan vans will have alot of competition as more and more companies want to get greener.

Modec are targeting the tipper van market with their brand new electric powered tipper van. The new tipper van has been designed for local authority refuse collection. No doubt these will start becoming popular as more councils try to become greener.

I also wouldn’t be surprised if we started to see an increase in van leasing companies that are investing in Modec vans as alot of companies that are currently leasing their vans may be interested in a cheaper, more greener alternative.

New GPS devices are giving vehicle fleet companies more power than ever before. Sat Navs and GPS tools of old could only let the driver know about their locations, which directions to take and speed etc. New newest devices however can relay this information to a computer anywhere in the world and this is very usually for business that has fleets of vehicle out on the road. A taxi company or Ford van leasing company for instance would benefit enormously. Let’s look at the main advantages of these GPS systems

Speeding. The velocity of the vehicle has previously just been for eyes of the driver but now the bosses can see too. The intensity of the breaking and acceleration of the vehicle can also be monitored on some models. What this means is that good drivers can be rewarded and bad drivers given warnings

Petrol.  Before GPS there was always a risk that drivers, especially in the van leasing trade, would claim petrol money from their employers for miles that were covered whilst not on work hours. Minimal information could be taken from the tachometer but it was very difficult to prove that the miles were not covered in work time. However, as information such as mileage, time of travel, and exact route can be mapped, its very hard to get away with claiming more petrol money than needed. The latest traffic information can also be fed into them

Location. One of the best advantages of an operator knowing exactly where is member of their fleet is, is that they can respond to call out and pick-ups etc much faster. Calls don’t now have to put out to all drivers to discover their current position, the operator can simply check their computer and dispatch the vehicle which is closest.

If you are looking for Mercedes van leasing please visit The Van Warehouse

A new study over 90% of all cars on the road in the UK and around 85% of the vehicles in the US would be rendered completely useless if an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) were to be released upon them. The research, which was commissioned by cable ties management producer Hellerman Tyton, showed that almost all cars would cease to work and cost thousands to repair if they were in an EMP blast zone.  They did say that it would depend on the location and intensity of the blast but the technology out there is capable of wiping out all electrical equipment within a 200 mile radius.

An EMP works by creating a huge electrical current that overloads any semiconductor elements that are found in electrical items beyond all repair. This means that any electrical devices that include semiconductors, which include all computers, phones and media devices, would be completely ruined. Modern cars also have a whole host of electrical equipment built into them and would suffer massive failure of all its electrical components. As we relay so heavy on our vehicles for transport, this would have a massive effect on the economy of the effected country. This is just one reason why it would make such an effective weapon.

Hellerman Tyton go on to say that soon even more cars would be prone to an EMP due to the governments new car scrappage scheme. Cars that are being made nowadays include a much greater amount of electrical implements than older cars. These developments may increase their functionality but at the same time they are becoming increasing fragile to electrical attacks.  Even the new beacon lights being fitted to a lot of cars will no longer work if they are subject to an EMP burst. Because their will always a demand for cars to be up to date an include the latest gadgetry, we are only going to become more vulnerable unfortunately. All we can do is keep our fingers crossed that this EMP technology does not get used

Driving your vehicle around without being covered by insurance can lead to some very bad situations, both for yourself and others. Despite this 1 in 10 drivers in the UK and US take to roads without it and put both themselves and others in all sorts of danger. Below are some of the most common problems that you will encounter should you defy the law and use your vehicle without getting it covered first.

Penalties. If you get found without insurance there are a number of different penalty options that you can have thrown at you depending on where you are driving. Getting points put on your lenience is one of the most common and this will have a knock on effect for things like future insurance costs and even employment. Most driving jobs for instance, request that you hold a licence that is free of penalty points. In most cases a fine will be slapped on your as well, which unfortanatly will more certainly be a greater amount that your insurance premiums would have been. If you are an employer and you don’t have lets say business vans insurance for example, you may even lose your whole fleet of vehicles.

Damage. If you are unlucky enough to have an accident and your vehicle is not covered by insurance, you will soon know about how expensive vehicle damage is. Not only will you be forking out for any damages inflicted to your own vehicle but if your to blame for the accident then you could be picking up the bill for a number of other people’s vehicles. you can even find yourself paying for damage to things such as road surfaces and even road side vegetation.

Medical fees. If your vehicle causes an accident that leads to either yourself or other becoming injured, you’ll have even heftier costs on your shoulders. Medical fees can soon mount up and can include tests, operations, follow up meetings and even ongoing physiotherapy and other therapies. To be honest, you’ll end up spending a great deal more that it would have cost you to get cover to start with

If you need vehicle insurance or alternatively insurance for small business then try Insurantz.com

The government in the UK has stated that it is looking into the possibility of offing van owners a £1K to get rid of their old van a long as they are older than 9 years. This idea behind this is to replicate the success of their previous car-scrapping initiative that was also recently launched. Along with an injection of activity into the new-car market, there would also be a dramatic reduction in the amount of old and dangerous cars on the road. As there are around 4.6 million vans on the UKs roads that are older than 9 year, there is a strong argument to adopt the same approach for vans. Also new vans filter into the van lease market over time so there are knock on positive effects. So what are some of the main safety features that can be seen on modern vans?

stronger chassis qualities. Something that has been seen in almost all new vans is a dramatic increase the strength of chassis. Chassis that were once considered strong found themselves prone to erosion and broke down over time, risking both driver and other road users. To combat this the new chassis are build of stronger alloys and are treated to resist rust and aging.

Impact airbags. Airbags have been around for quite a while now but where introduced into vans much later than their where in cars. Even then, for the majority of vans there were only front airbags placed in the steering wheel and maybe passage area. New vans tend to offer front, side and even impact airbags in the major cavities.

Electric handbrakes. As previous suggested, one of the main jobs of a van is to carry heavy cargo. Older vans were subject to handbrake failure quite frequently as they could not handle the strains they were subject to, leading to all sorts of accidents taking place. This was a particular issue with Citroen van leasing. Newer van models often come with electric handbrakes that lock on automatically and are more efficient so will reduce the wear they suffer.

For quality Mercedes van leasing go to The Van Warehouse

Thousands of jobs could potentially be spared at the van makers LDV if the government agree to a £5m bridging loan that would lead to further investment from overseas companies.

Although LDV and Citroen van leasing have been on the up recently, production at LDV has been put on hold since December last year as a result of reduced demand in the new van market. Workers there have also recently agreed to a pay cut of 10% and even a 3-day week in attempts to reduce outgoings at the plant. The originally request to the government from LDV was for £30m to keep production stable. This was not given buy the government initially but since LDV has reduced the amount they are asking for, the request is being reconsidered.

Over 800 jobs could be saved if the government decide to award the loan, as well as helping more than 6,000 workers are are affected along the supply chain. A number of investors from overseas are apparently looking to put money into the company if the government take action. These include one of the bidders who previously failed to secure Jaguar Land Rover, but also Mahindra and Mahindra, an Indian group who were in the running to purchase JLR and also a van leasing company a year ago but was eventually beaten by rival Asian conglomerate Tata.

Copies of the company accounts and business plans have been sent to the government and include a new concept for an ecological ‘green’ van. All the elements of the data will be looked into well by the government but the bosses at LDV seem optimistic. Erik Eberhardson, the chairman of LDV’s Russian owner Gaz, has already stated he is convinced the firm can be saved and a spokesman for LDV recently announced “This isn’t dead in the water. BERR has agreed to investigate all options, and the MBO team believe they have the best plan.”

It is common knowledge that the domain of the light commercial vehicle belongs firmly in the vice-like grip of the Ford Transit and has been for decades. There are, however, certain manufacurers that have emerged are doing all they can to topple the Transit’s stranglehold on the market. Amongst these competitive spirits are such respected manufacturers as Peugeot and Renault, there is one particular rival that seems to be making a very good case for themselves indeed. The manufacturer I am quite take with is Vauxhall.

Vauxhall have seen great success already with their range of vans, each designed to better suit a particular light commercial endeavour. The Vauxhall Movano is the biggest of the vans and is well suited to those who need to transport a large amount of tools or other haulage to complete their mandate. The Vauxhall Vivaro is more style orientated and perhaps the smaller and more mobile brother to the Movano. The Astravan and Corsavan are pretty self-explanatory and provide the small van suitable for the more fledgling business or the smaller end of a fleet.

What is impressive about the Vauxhall Van range is how they have taken everything that is desirable about the Ford Tranist and have added extra elements. For example; the Vivaro has all the practicality of the famous Transit, but has the updated looks and image that will appeal to business owners if they are keen to make a great impression on their clients. In turn, the Movano is available with various wheelbases, to help you make a more informed decision of what vehicle to buy based on the kind of strains that will be placed on your fleet.

 The Transit will continue to be a bestseller based upon its deserved legacy, but it is definitely worth at least investigating the Vauxhall range of Vans, as they will provide an excellent service to you and your business.