24 March 2021
The Department for Transport (DfT) and Office for Zero Emission Vehicles has announced that as of March 18 2021, its grant scheme for electric cars, vans and trucks will “target less expensive models and reflect a greater range of affordable vehicles available”.
In order to encourage more people to make the switch to electric, the improved scheme will extend grants of up to £2,500 for electric vehicles on cars priced under £35,000 as opposed to more expensive models “typically bought by drivers who can afford to switch without a...
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22 March 2021
Waste removal company Divert have urged company car drivers not to leave the charging cables for their electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles unsecured, as they have become a target for thieves.
Divert’s founding director Mark Hall said, “Car chargers are particularly appealing to thieves because they can be sold for up to £200 and they are selling them everywhere, eBay, Facebook, and to dodgy scrap dealers and they can be pretty costly and inconvenient for you to replace, so it’s best to keep it locked away from the...
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19 March 2021
Drivers who drop litter out of their car window could now face a fine of up to £120 if they are caught by LitterCam.
The new technology, created by entrepreneur Andrew Kemp, will be put to the test from April 2021 in Maidstone, Kent over a year-long period. Fines will start at £90 can reach up to £120 if not paid within 15 days.
According the LitterCam website, “the technology uses Artificial Intelligence to remotely detect vehicle-based littering offences. Our platform then securely transmits this footage for human...
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18 March 2021
The Capgemini Research Institute has published a new report, Shifting Gears, which investigates ‘how consumers see the car as a safe space’.
Researchers believe that post-pandemic, people will continue to avoid public transportation – potentially increasing grey fleet use.
A survey of more than 11,000 consumers from 11 countries (the US, the UK, France, Germany, China, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Italy, Spain, and India), in April 2020 found that just 44% of respondents would choose their car over public transport. When asked...
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17 March 2021
After 30 successful years leading the Marshall Leasing business, Peter Cakebread, Managing Director of Marshall Leasing, will be retiring from the business on April 30th 2021.
Peter joined the business in November 1990 and has since been instrumental in establishing Marshall Leasing as a highly successful and widely known leasing business.
James McGee, Managing Director of Northridge Finance, said: “Thanks to Peter’s direction and drive, Marshall Leasing has been recognised by Fleet News and other industry bodies as being exceptional. He...
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16 March 2021
A survey by Cox Automotive has found that orders for new cars, ‘21’ number plate cars in this case, were down by 30% in March 2021 compared with previous years – a month which is usually one of the best performing in terms of car sales.
Cox Automotive Insight and strategy director Philip Nothard said, “The data on car sales during the third lockdown makes for difficult reading, but it also provides some optimism. Seventy percent of dealers report the third lockdown has caused a 10-30% reduction in new car orders, and 17% of...
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15 March 2021
DriveTech has released a new whitepaper, The Global Language of Road Safety and Why it Matters’, which highlights road safety issues in the UK and aims to “inspire widespread thinking” about the language used to communicate road safety.
The report offers practical advice on how to reduce driving risk within a business and provides clear points for a successful driving for work policy.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) have found that 1.35 million fatalities occur across the globe each year as a result of road traffic collisions....
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12 March 2021
Bristol City Council are ready to submit their final proposals for a new clean air zone (CAZ) to the government.
The plans were announced earlier in the year (2021) and Bristol City Council are now prepared to officially submit the proposal of introducing a Class D CAZ, which will require drivers of all older, non-compliant, vehicles to pay a daily fee to enter the small zone which will be in the centre of Bristol.
It is expected that more than 71% of vehicles using the zone are already compliant with the emissions standard, and most petrol vehicles...
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11 March 2021
As reported by The Times, the RAC has found that there were more than 300,000 new privately owned electric vehicles (EVs) in the UK at the end of 2020, compared with the same period in 2019.
The RAC’s analysis of data by the Department for Transport (DfT) found that the number of privately owned EVs in the UK grew from 56,000 in 2019 to 86,000 in 2020.
Despite the fact that there is now a total of 213,000 EVs in the UK, 86,000 of which are privately owned, the RAC has warned that this is still only a small percentage of the total 32 million cars in...
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09 March 2021
The Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) has published a new report ‘Drink driving – the tip of an iceberg?’ urging the UK government to review their approach to tackling drug driving.
The report found that law enforcement bodies across the UK have drastically different approached to tackling the issue of drug driving. In some cases, the high cost and time needed to conduct blood testing is resulting in police using it only in some cases, instead of as a routine roadside test.
The report details that a...
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