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It wasnt that long ago that business in the UK and US found themselves under a large amount of pressure when their margins were slashed due to a increase in petrol prices. Transport-based companies were hit hardest for obvious reasons and lots had no choice but to cut pay and cut vehicle numbers.

Now, after it was announced that petrol prices are set to rise again in the coming months, some businesses are on the edge and a large percentage of them are having to cut their fleet even further. The worst part of it, according to many transport companies is that they are increasingly unable to formulate accurate profit projections. “We get a set of forcasts drawn up and then they mean nothing when petrol goes up so much” argues Jerry Henley, Managing Director of JHG Foods. Around 25% of all companies in the US that were heavily reliant on transport, went into administration last year, which is a figure many predict will be replicated this year as well.

Many people and businesses are on their last legs right now and the last thing they need is an increase in their overheads. “We are being crippled” argues Fiona Potter, who runs a small furniture chain in the UK. Our customers expect their furniture to be delivered to them, which is something that is becoming financially unviable for us now. Some companies such as the one mentioned above have taken up cheap van leasing as a way of bringing down their overall costs. This is because van leasing enables businesses to not buy their vans outright and so this is a useful option if cash-flow is poor. An interesting point to note is that Citroen van leasing has come out on top this year in terms of popularity, largely due to the high miles per gallon figures they offer. LDV van leasing is also up their with the most popular choices as their reliability is well respected in many industries.

Being forced to heavily reevaluate their business models is something that UK and American companies are accustomed to, after the price of petrol shot up last year. Many who relied on large fleets of vans to transport goods all over the country were forced to slash employee pay and take a number of their vehicles off the roads.

Fleets may need to be reduced even further now and companies pushed even closer towards breaking point as the government announces predicted further cost increases in the coming months. The worst part of it, according to many transport companies is that they are increasingly unable to formulate accurate profit projections. “Each time we plan out our business for that quarter, petrol prices are put up and our costings go out of the window” says Barry Hemstone, MD of RDA Foods. Over 20% of all American transport-based businesses were forced to cease trading in 2008, and the figure is thought to be something similar in 2009 also.

For companies that rely so heavy on petrol prices to turn over a profit, the news of another rise has not been well received. “We are being crippled” argues Fiona Potter, who runs a small furniture chain in the UK. Our customers expect their furniture to be delivered to them, which is something that is becoming financially unviable for us now. A number of similar companies are turning to van leasing to try an reduce their outgoings. Because they are not buying the vehicles outright, they can afford to spend more on petrol whilst maintaining their margins. An interesting point to note is that Citroen van leasing has come out on top this year in terms of popularity, largely due to the high miles per gallon figures they offer. Ford van leasing is also up their with the most popular choices as their reliability is well respected in many industries.

Back in May this year, the UK government launched a scheme that would reward car buyers when they scrapped their old cars. Oddly enough it was called the ‘Car Scrappage Scheme’ and it gave car buyers 2000 towards a new car when they scrapped a car that’s more than 10 years old.

The overall cost for the scheme was 600 million pounds. Half of the total was payed by car manufacturers and the other half was handled by the tax payers. Although this seems a large amount, it’s definitely paying off.

The total number of new cars registered for July 2009 have just been released and they show a rise of 2.4% compared to July 2008. The 2.4% rise on last year’s figures mean that a total of 157,149 new cars were registered this July. Out of the total 157,149 cars registered in July, over 33,000 of them were registered using the scrappage scheme system. Although a 2.4% rise is not a huge number, it’s still good news because it’s the first rise in car sales since April 2008.

Due to the good result that’s occured from the scheme, many MPs are calling for Lord Mandelson to continue the scheme for 2010. Currently the scheme is due to end either when the tax payers money input runs out, or in February 2010. However, due to the massive amount of popularity for the schme with almost 150,000 cars registered using it, I would assume they will carry the scheme on.

Car manufacturers are hoping that if the scheme is continued, the rise seen in car sales will continue.

Even though the scheme has proved to be good for the new car market, it’s not so good for other parts of the industry. The first one affected is the second hand car market. As everyone is scrapping their old cars, many people are finding it hard to find a suitable second hand car. The second sector that’s affected is the cheap car leasing market.

Because many people are opting to buy a new car rather than lease, many leasing businesses are loosing out as people choose not to go for a Nissan lease when they can just scrap their older car for savings off a new one. Luckily, this problem doesn’t so much effect the van contract hire sector because the scheme doesn’t benefit van scrappage as yet.

The giant of the motoring industry, General Motors, who own brands like Chevrolet, GMC, Cadillac, Pontiac and Buick, have reveasleda line-up of new cars. Only last month, General Motors recovered from 40 days of bankruptcy, in that time the US government invested $50 billion into the company, making it now 60% public owned.

Now that General Motors are save from bankruptcy for a while, they are starting to look ahead and make changes to their brands. Within the past week, they have released details about the new ways they will be selling their cars. One of the methods announced, which began on August 11th, is by selling the new cars on eBay, the online auction site.

Last Tuesday, August 11th, General Motors invited a group of hand chosen consumers to Detroit for a special event. The event was comprised of showing off a series of new cars that will soon be released by the motoring company. After recovering from their bankruptcy troubles, they have had another look at their model ranges on all their companies and have said it needs to change.

Currently, the majority of the cars General Motors sell are the size of tanks, these were once popular with Americans, however, now customers tend to go for smaller and eco-friendly vehicles. To try and full in some younger clients to their showrooms, General Motors have designed a set of smaller and more fuel efficient cars for a number of their car brands.

The Chevrolet Volt was just one of the announced cars which is expected to be a big hit. This car is said to be set for release in 2010, it’s already become very popular because of how many miles per gallon it can manage. Currently, it’s been reported that the new Volt can do around 230 miles per gallon of city driving.

The new model Cadillac was the other big annoucnement at the event. The announced model is going to be a small sports sedan and will come with either 4 wheel or rear wheel drive. The new car came with no release date, but it is said to be smaller than the very popular CTS model.

During the event, a number of planned changes were announced by General Motors, all of which are expected to take effect within the next 3 years. Some plans announced included making 3 new models for Buick, doubling their current model range. We’ll have to keep watching to see what new models are released first. If we’re lucky, some of these models will get into the UK in the contract hire market. Currently, the only big American you can really lease is a Chrysler lease. Alternatively, another option to you would be to opt for cheap van leasing because they’re most likely the same size as a Chevrolet.

Earlier this year car maker General Motor, who own brands like Pontiac and Chevrolet, filed for bankruptcy. However, they have sold off some of their companies and managed to turn themselves around, and now as of July this year, they have stopped receiving protection from the US government.

Now they have managed to pull themselves up, they are now building the company back up again and trying to being in some extra sales. Two new methods are being looked at by the company in an attempt to sell more of their cars. The first method is car leasing, which they has already tried back in 2008 but pulled out of the same time last year. The company now has plans to return once more to the contract hire market this month. Because the deals would be coming directly from GM, they could offer very cheap van leasing offers because they can take the cars straight from the production line, being able to undercut much of their competition.

The other method, and possibly the more news worthy, is that General Motors are going to be teaming up with the American eBay site. As of yesterday, General Motors began listing Buick, GMC, Chevrolet and Pontiac cars for the California area on the online auction site.

The listings will be run up until September on a trial basis, but with the almost all of the Californian GM dealers already signed up, the system is already becoming popular. The system will work by website users either haggling for a price or paying the listed price for the car. After the car has been purchased, the buyer must travel to one of the registered General Motor dealers to get their new car.

If the system is said to be successful by both eBay and General Motors, they will look to bring the system in across the entire United States. Also if other companies see the methods being successful, I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw other manufacturers offering car leases such as a Mazda lease.

Choosing which range of vans are right for your business is not simple, they have to have the right features all at the right price for you.

However, this decision is made a lot simpler with the Renault Trafic. The Trafic van is Renault’s best selling van and it recently won the 2009 Security Award. The 2009 British Insurance Vehicle Security Awards was where the Trafic van won the award and this year was the first year that vans were included in the runnings.

The van was given the award due to the large number of security features that the van contains. Some of the security features that are included are: anti-drill door locks, Thatcham category one alarm and remote central locking with deadlocking. One big feature that has been included is the Renault Anti Intruder Device which will automatically lock all the doors once the van travels faster than 5mph.

The Trafic van has proven to be one of the most successful vans, not just for Renault, but for a large number of companies. 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.

No matter how old your business is, all businesses will find that leasing vehicles can save a huge amount of money. 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 can be the most ideal way to supply your business with vehicles.

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

The amount of truck registrations has been declining month on month and June registrations have shown the largest decline so far. With only 2,761 new trucks being registered in June, this is a 47% fall from June 2008.

As for the other part of the sector, the amount of van registrations has seen slight improvement. The amount of vans being registered reached 17,158 units. This amount of sales shows a 40.1% drop in registrations on June last year, however, it’s actually the smallest month on month drop so far. This means that the van sales level could be improving.

Renault was one of the main manufacturers that did well during June. They racked up a 78.5% increase in sales in June for their van and light trucks. The Renault Trafic van proved to be the most successful for Renault. Renault have found the Trafic van to be their bestselling van to date, plus with it winning the 2009 Security award recently, the sales should continue to rise.

The amount of truck and van sales is affected by a number of factors. One is that many companies looking to buy vans are waiting to see if prices fall so that they can get the best bargain. 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.

So although many companies are not buying new vans and trucks, the amount being bought by leasing companies is rising to keep up with demand.

The Coventry based electric van manufacturer, Modec, has released details that they have won a contract worth £3m for the sale of 100 vans to a French dsitributor. This news was released after Modec announced that their electric urban delivery van is the first to gain the EC Whole Vehicle Type Approval. This means that the van can be sold outside of Britain to any EU country without having to be put through more testing.

The electric van manufacturer has benefitted from business from Tesco’s, UPS, FedEx and Center Parcs just to name a few. They can now add yet another client to their list, ElecTruckCity who ordered £3m worth of vans.

ElecTruckCity is a French van distributor who is based in Paris, they are the first Modec distributor in France. 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 has currently sold over 150 ehicles in the UK to customers like Tesco. These Modec delivery vans are becoming ever more popular because they have been design for the city. The Modec van can travel 100 miles on the lithium battery at only 15p per mile, whereas a petrol powered van would cost around 37p per mile.

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. This new vehicle has been designed for councils refuce collection. These are most likely going to become popular as we see an increase in councils becoming 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.

The financial crash is in full swing and folk are looking for various ways to save cash. One of the best ways that this can be done is by people cutting down on transportation costs.  Sharing Car Program clubs is something that has majorly grown in popularity over the last few years, instead of committing yourself to any contracts or spending a fortune to buy a car, you can actually use a type of pay as you go vehicle. What you do on most occasions is book a car, get the address of the closest one near to you and then drive away.

But what is the true benefits from this and can you take advantage of it? Let us take a look at compare the three options.

Purchasing a Car
There is not a much better feeling then that of owning a new vehicle, you never have to worry about transporation because you always have the keys avaliable. But it’s all very well and good until your car decides to break down on you. You end up paying a fortune in repairs and on top of this you have to pay for tax, insurance, MOTs and not to mention that if you live in a city it is going to cost you a fortune for parking and charges.

Leasing a Vehicle
Something that is going quite main stream is the leasing of vehicles, the benefits of this is that you do not have to worry about maintenance costs, MOTs, breakdowns as they are all covered by the leasing firm. All you really need to think about is driving a brand new car.

Car sharing
Sharing Car Program is a growing trend that can in fact be quite beneficial, especially if you are not a heavy car user. If you need to use a car for a few hours a week or a few hours in a month then this definitely could be your option. But if you are of course looking to use it for more then a day or so then the fee will soon add up and you may end up paying quite a bit.

Do you want to Buy a Honda or Buy a Renault

Some people find it hard to get a girl and wonder how other men always manage to attract the sexiest birds. Let me inform you of a fact, there is one well known secret and that is in the car you have.

I guarantee that even if you are the worst looking person in the world, if you pulled up in a Mercedes CLK then you would definatley pull a girl. Girls see a nice car as a sign that you are wealthy and they want to grab a piece of that wealth no matter what it takes.

If you are reading this you are no doubt asking yourself, how the hell am I going to afford a Ferrari? Well the answer can be found in car leasing. There are basically a huge amount of car leasing companies which have a massive amount of vehicles at your call. Most of them come with a contact commitment of at least a few months, but you may be able to find a dealer that will offer it to you for maybe a month or so.

So if you are really finding it so hard to get a lady, then see below for your three steps of sexcess!
1) Find the best pulling car around, personally you should choose from either a Ferrari, Porsche, Mercedes car leasing or BMW car leasing.
2) Make sure your confident then go and hit the town and see how you will attract the birds.
3) Well done congratulate yourself, you have finally manage to get a girlfriend.

Now comes the most difficult part of trying to convince your new found love to stay with you when you hand back the car keys. But if we are going to be honest she will probably end up leaving you anyway because you are so darn ugly.