Traffic wardens going on "be friendly" courses.

Traffic wardens will be given less intimidating uniforms and ordered to stop patrolling in groups, under plans to make them friendlier to motorists.   This has been brought about by the increased number of complaints by drivers.

Yes it is true read the whole story in the freindly Traffic Wardens in the Telegraph

Car Scrap Scheme What has happened.?

Little seems to have happened in terms of Government bailout of the motor industry since Lord Mandelson announced his £2.3 billion package other than most manufacturers immediately announced increases of around 5%.

The next move is expected to be the introduction of a scrappage scheme as they already have in Europe to encourage drivers to scrap their old bangers for a brand new or nearly new car. Now I’m not sure why the person in the Government should think that this is a good idea or that a person driving an old banger would be in the market for a new car if all they could afford was a cheapo even with the £2,000 proposed payment for the old car.

Since announcing that they may introduce such a scheme the industry has become concerned that since the scheme was mooted many people that may have already been prepared to buy a new car are now waiting to see if they can get £2,000 for scrapping their old car.

The procrastination and confusion is actually damaging new car sales.

Politicians of any shade and commerce make uncomfortable companions when one is clueless about the motivations, influences and requirements of the other.

Workplace Parking Levies

On the subject of great schemes we are now all on tenterhooks awaiting the decision by the Department for Transport whether or not to introduce Workplace Parking Levies into Nottingham.

The rest of the country is waiting for this decision before considering introducing it into their own area. The idea is to discourage employees from driving into town centres and, as a result, reduce pollution and congestion.

The suggestion is to charge all companies that provide parking spaces to employees a fee of up to £350 per annum for each parking space. This is of course going to hit SME’s if it is introduced and these sorts of impositions, at this time, could prove to be devastating to some small companies that happen to have several parking spaces.

What will actually happen is that the companies will ban cars from their car parks in order to save money and employees will park in the street for free making it more difficult for shoppers and visitors.

 

Leasing firms numbers will reduce.

Over the next 12 months we are likely to see some contraction of the leasing providers.

Traditionally the larger fish have swallowed up the minnows when a recession starts to bite but like the housing market many of the small operators carry a high level of toxic debt. Some small leasing companies have provided unrealistic rental rates in order to buy business based on unachievable and overstated resale values of their vehicles.

Car drivers should be drinking more water.

Drivers should drink more water according to Water Wellpoint.

They looked at the effects of a lack of fluids on drivers with some worrying results. If a driver suffers from dehydration of just 1% his concentration can drop by 12%. If dehydration increases to 2% concentration drops by 20% while motor speed – which governs reaction times – reduces by 15%. Crucially for drivers, hand-eye co-ordination drops by 12%, while general efficiency drops by 18%.

Colin Wilson, research scientist at Water Wellpoint said that all drivers should make sure that they drink plenty of water when driving and companies should insist on drivers taking on plenty of water as part of their duty of care instructions.

If you are a business you need to be aware of the tax changes coming into force in April. I have been through this before but as we are now nearly there let me refresh your memory:

• Cars with CO2 emissions of more than 160g/km will be written down at 10% on a reducing balance basis.
• Cars of less than or equal to 160g/km will be written down at 20% on a reducing balance basis.
• The £3,000 per annum maximum writing down allowance has been removed and as before there will be a first year allowance of 100% for cars with CO2 emissions of 110g/km or less.
• New rules for lease rental restrictions mean cars with CO2 emissions of less than or equal to 160g/km will have no element of their leasing cost disallowed for corporation tax purposes.
• Cars with CO2 emissions of more than 160g/km will have a flat 15% of the finance rental element of their leasing cost disallowed.
• The percentage of financial rental costs that are disallowed will be capped at 15%.

Industry experts suggest that costs on company cars emitting over 160g/km will increase on average by £30 per month. The new rules only apply to new acquisitions after the start of the new tax year. All existing cars will continue to be taxed under the old system until they are disposed of.

If you would like to go into more depth on the subject, major leasing company Lex has prepared a white paper detailing the effects and listing the winners and losers. You can obtain a copy of the white paper by visiting their website www.lex.co.uk

Mobile Phone use in car

Calls for a total mobile phone ban have come from safety experts following a landmark case. Lynne-Marie Howden, a director and head of sales at business consultancy Insights was found not guilty of causing death by dangerous driving. But she was found guilty of the lesser charge of careless driving which resulted in a 12 month ban and a fine of £2,000.

Ms Howden was talking on her hands free phone to a works colleague when she collided with a car in the oncoming lane. ‘I believe this is the first case where a conviction has been obtained as a result of a hands free mobile phone conversation’ said David Faithful, legal advisor to Roadsafe.

Clearly this sets a clear precedent for all drivers who believe that it is safe to use a hands free device. Anything that you do whilst driving, if it results in an accident, could have serious consequences.

Added to the above, if the accident had taken place after the introduction of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act charges would have been brought under that act which could have resulted in a prison sentence and a much stronger sentence.

There has been a lot of speculation over the future of Saab which caused most leasing companies to remove them from their quoting systems even though there was no need for this knee jerk reaction.

Some funders are now returning slowly so we can now offer a competitive PCP on one of the few automatics that we have available (20 cars in stock). 

New MOT number plate rules

The new MOT rules coming into force soon regarding number plates could cause many vehicles to fail the test. If you have a test due soon the read the full article on the new number plate rules

DVLA warns motorists

5th March 2009
Check V5C Registration Certificate before buying a used vehicle

DVLA is warning motorists to check the V5C registration certificate when buying a used vehicle. Motorists are advised not to purchase the vehicle, and instead report the matter to the police, if the serial number of a V5C registration certificate falls within the following ranges:

BG8229501 to BG9999030

BI2305501 to BI2800000

Motorists are also reminded not to proceed with any purchase if a V5C has no serial number, or looks to have been altered or tampered with, or the vehicle is accompanied by only a part of the V5C registration certificate.

If a member of the public wishes to check if a serial number of a registration certificate is within the series prior to the purchase of a vehicle, they can call DVLA on 0870 241 1878