Ever-increasing demand from vehicle rental and leasing companies, fleet operators and the plant hire industry for Jaama’s cutting-edge software solutions continues to fuel the recruitment of additional staff.
Jaama’s strengthening of its software development and testing teams continues apace with the recruitment of Gemma Keen, Nathaniel Wright and Chris Ford.
Ms Keen and Mr Wright have joined as software developers who are responsible for coding, and Mr Ford has joined Jaama’s software testing team with responsibility to ensure Jaama remains at the forefront of the IT revolution in the fleet and plant hire sectors.
Ms Keen joins the leading fleet and asset management software supplier following five years as a software developer at an asset finance software company which she joined after graduating from university.
Sophisticated web-based fleet management software systems significantly reduce the amount of time company decision-makers spend on administration tasks relating to vehicles and their drivers.
Companies need to have a central view of mileage and business travel expenses by setting a mileage limit and emissions baseline whilst identifying any driver and vehicle issues, according to Matt Dyer, vice chairman of the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA).He was commenting in response to last week’s BVRLA report on Britain’s 14 million-strong ‘grey fleet’ amid claims that the associated costs were “invisible” to UK company bosses (see https://www.jaama.com/blog/the-hidden-cost-of-grey-fleet-need-not-be-invisible/).
New research from psychologists at the University of Sussex has found driving while talking on a hands-free phone can be just as distracting as talking on a hand-held mobile.
As a result, road safety charity Brake has renewed its call for the government to ban all mobile phone use when driving.
Dr Graham Hole, senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Sussex, said: “A popular misconception is that using a mobile phone while driving is safe as long as the driver uses a hands-free phone. Our research shows this is not the case. Hands-free can be equally distracting. The only ‘safe’ phone in a car is one that’s switched off.”
Moves by the European Commission to impose HGV-like regulations on the light commercial van sector have been condemned.
The Commission has launched a 12-week consultation (to 15 September) about changes to operator licensing which pose a range of questions about the way key pieces of transport legislation work and how they could be changed.
It is the first of three consultations impacting on the sector and among the key questions asked in the consultation is:
•Should the threshold for legislation such as operator licensing and cabotage – the haulage of goods for hire or reward in one member state by a vehicle registered in a different member state – which currently apply to vehicles used for hire or reward over 3.5 tonnes, be lowered and what implications would this have?
The cost of car servicing and repairs could rise by 30%, and up to 40,000 independent businesses could go bust following the UK’s decision to leave the European Union, a leading independent academic has advised the Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI).
If that occurred the impact on the fleet industry would be huge with many company-owned, leased and rented vehicles undergoing service, maintenance and repair (SMR) work in the independent sector.
Professor Jim Saker of Loughborough University has told the IMI, the professional association for individuals working in the motor industry, that many of the 500,000 jobs and businesses in the sector it represents would be at risk.
Used vehicle valuation experts are divided on their view as to whether prices will fall in the wake of the UK’s decision to leave the European Union.
Rupert Pontin, director of valuations at vehicle information provider Glass’s, said: “If the Brexit voters are correct in their thinking, it could create greater prosperity for the country in the long term but, over the next few months and years, the road is likely to be very bumpy.
“Markets will be affected, as will the value of the pound, and we expect to see consumer confidence tail off until the view of the way forward becomes clearer.
“For the motor industry, all of these developments are very likely to have negative effects including a period of instability for new and used car sales, as well as an increase in pre-registration activity and downward pressure on [used car] values.”
A major consultation on changes to the Highway Code and insurance to help pave the way for automated cars to be used on British roads has been launched by the government.
Under the proposed measures, rules will be changed so automated vehicles can be insured for use on the roads.
In addition, the Highway Code and regulations are to be altered so advanced driver assistance systems that change lanes on the motorway and park the vehicle by remote control can be used safely.
Cars with advanced driver assistance features, like remote control parking and motorway assist, are expected to be on sale in Britain in the next two to four years with automated and driverless vehicles expected on the roads any time from the mid-2020s onwards.
The size of Britain’s ‘grey fleet’ and the cost of mileage claims is “invisible” to UK company bosses and “a blind spot in the government’s transport strategy”, according to a new report.
Now the British Vehicle Leasing and Rental Association (BVRLA) is calling on the government to tackle the challenges of the UK’s ‘grey fleet’, following publication of the report which it says shows the true cost of employees using their own cars for work purposes.
The UK’s ‘grey fleet’ – employees who drive their own cars on business trips – comprises 14 million cars, 40% of all vehicles on the road, and costs employers more than £5.5 billion a year in mileage claims and car allowances, it is calculated in the report. Collectively some 12 billion business miles are driven each year on Britain’s roads by employee-owned cars.