The government has been urged to introduce a wide-range of incentives to encourage corporate take-up of ultra-low emission vehicles (ULEVs). The British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA has called on the government to: •Introduce a workplace charging point grant scheme for plug-in vehicles, there is already one in place for home charging points […]
More than half of businesses say they are concerned about their company drivers being distracted by in-car technology with the introduction of connected cars to their fleets, according to new research by RAC Business. The survey, which highlighted employers’ attitudes towards increasing connectivity in business vehicles, found 51% were concerned about their drivers being […]
Local authorities and car park operators can now set individual parking tariffs according to the CO2 emissions of vehicles, enabling them to offer lower parking fees or even free parking for drivers of ultra-low emission vehicles. The new feature has been developed by parking technology business APT Skidata and uses automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) […]
Drivers who use their mobile phones as satellite navigation devices risk being banned from driving, police chiefs have warned. Tougher penalties, which came into force in April, were intended to clampdown on drivers using their mobile phones to make calls and send text messages while at the wheel. However, drivers have now been warned that […]
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?