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Upgrade the security of your fleet

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By Locks 4 Vans

A van is broken into every 23 minutes in the UK. This results in not only the theft of valuable cargo and costly repair bills for the vehicle, but also the loss to your business in having that vehicle off the road.

At Locks 4 Vans we are passionate about protecting Commercial Vehicles from criminal attack or theft.

We have identified various common types of attack: peel & steal, puncturing the bodywork to expose the van’s locking system and a range of opportunistic crime methods. Locks 4 Vans works closely with our trusted installer network so we can react and anticipate new methods of attack used by criminals, helping you to protect your fleet.

We have over 7,000 locking and shielding products/components in our award-winning range. Our team of security specialists are on hand to equip you with a bespoke solution to meet the needs of your fleet, improving the security of your cargo.

Whether your business is in logistics, parcel delivery, utility, property maintenance, pharmaceutical, food and beverage or rental, we have LCV and HGV solutions for you.

Find out more about the latest attack methods and how to protect your fleet

WhichEV releases its Guide to Public Charging 2022

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By James Morris, WhichEV

Experienced EV drivers find the whole charging process relatively simple, but it can be daunting for those new to electric vehicles. WhichEV has created an updated guide to charging that helps to demystify the process and explain some of the more important terms.

Knowing where to find the latest high-powered public charging hubs from industry leaders like Osprey can be really useful when you need a quick, reliable charge during business hours.

WhichEV also covers street charging, that can offer a low cost overnight solution for those without a driveway – as well as public destination charging and the options you’re likely to find at motorway service stations. Finally, the guide covers the kind of charges you’re likely to pay and the kind of etiquette that will make you popular with other EV users.

Click here to read more.

When business and pleasure don’t mix

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For fleet managers, managing parking payments is tricky. Using solutions that aren’t tailored to fleets as a workaround may seem clever at the time, but these are riddled with risk and a massive time drain.

A workaround that doesn’t work

PayByPhone, the global leader in mobile parking payments, realised that a precarious approach to fleet parking was being adopted by businesses throughout the country. Companies were signing up for accounts designed for personal use, adding their company card and providing each driver with the same username and password.

Adam Dolphin, UK Sales Director, PayByPhone, says: “Companies can be forgiven for thinking this workaround might work but personal accounts just aren’t designed for that. It actually creates more work for a busy fleet manager, not less.”

Using a PayByPhone personal account to cater for a corporate fleet facilitates anonymous parking – businesses have no way of knowing who booked what session. Anyone with access to the account can park any vehicle and if a driver leaves the business, they still have the app, so can still pay for parking with their former employer’s card. Payment details are also visible to anyone with access to the account so these details could be misused.

“Fleet managers should always opt for solutions that are bespoke to their needs, like our PayByPhone Business, which delivers security, visibility and efficiency, enabling businesses to take back control,” Dolphin adds.

PayByPhone Business’ centralised system gives fleet managers visibility over all parking activity in a simple solution. The portal enables admins to manage their fleet of both vehicles and drivers, adding and removing access as appropriate.

PayByPhone Business is scalable, so there is no limit to the numbers of vehicles a company can add, and for added convenience, they can be added in bulk. Payment can be made from one credit card for all drivers for maximum simplicity. And for added security, once a driver or vehicle is deleted, the associated business payment card will immediately be removed, safeguarding the account.

To find out more and to sign up your fleet visit https://park.paybyphone.co.uk/business.

Improving driver behaviour: Using telematics for safety & engagement

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By Richard Hemming – VP Customer Success, GreenRoad Technologies 

Did you know that ~94% of accidents are caused by driver error? (Source: NHTSA)

That’s why, if you want to make a real impact on fleet safety, you have to focus on the driver.

The good news is that almost all drivers – given the right tools and incentives, can improve their safety dramatically – even overnight! 

When drivers get accurate real-time feedback about their driving and positive re-enforcement, almost all of them start improving immediately, paying more attention to the road and driving more carefully. This strengthens the fleet’s safety culture, resulting in significant, rapid reductions in accidents (often over 50%), fuel consumption (or charge range for Electric Vehicles) (10%-20%), maintenance costs and risk. And these benefits continue to build over time.

The Challenge: Driver Buy-In
Unfortunately, every fleet has “resistors”: drivers who remain attached to their “aggressive” (our words) or “skilled and confident” (their words) driving styles. Truthfully, no one likes being told that they are poor drivers – particularly not from a manager.

That’s why a real time, in-vehicle self-coaching approach is so important. When drivers are put in control of their own safety, with second-by-second guidance provided by artificial intelligence-powered coaching rather than by an outsider, the drivers are able to independently reach their own goals with minimal management intervention.

Driver empowerment can be taken even higher by adding in gamification elements. Once driver safety is tracked – especially via objective Safety Scores – it can be rewarded with peer and management acknowledgement and prizes. Even simple “leader boards” can work wonders: no one wants to see their name at the bottom of list!

Just Download and Go
Today, any fleet can implement real-time, in-vehicle driver coaching and gamification by simply downloading an app onto their drivers’ mobile devices. And the online world makes competitions easier than ever to run – whether inside a single depot, or company-wide.

The opportunity is literally in your hands. The sooner your drivers “click”, the sooner you will experience the benefits!

GreenRoad Technologies, a leading provider of fleet safety telematics, provides advanced digital solutions for real-time driver coaching and safety gamification.

LinkedIn group – Fleet Management Networking Community https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8694097/

Did you know that ~94% of accidents are caused by driver error? (Source: NHTSA). That’s why, if you want to make a real impact on fleet safety, you have to change the behaviour of your drivers. In this article, GreenRoad’s Richard Hemming, FCILT, discusses how the latest telematics technologies can make it happen with automated tools and apps for real-time driver coaching, friendly competitions and engagement.

#driverbehaviour #safetytelematics #fleetmanageemnt #app

ULEZ expansion: Fines could top £864m in first six months

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By Ben Hubbard, WhichEV

With the expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) that came into effect on Monday, London’s non-compliant drivers are predicted to be fined up to £864m in the first six months, according to vehicle management app Caura.

With the ULEZ impacting one in 4.6 London cars, Caura’s research show that there are 565,000 pre-2005 petrol or pre-2016 diesel vehicles on the roads, which are not compliant with the new zone’s emissions standards.

Click here for the full story.

Mixing business with pleasure – a digital parking solution for grey fleets

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By Adam Dolphin, UK Sales Director at PayByPhone

Grey fleets – where employees use personal vehicles for business purposes – have become a popular transport solution. For organisations, it’s an attractive solution as they have less capital outlay and can pay lower taxes; and for the drivers, they take better care of the car as it’s their own. They also usually opt for more fuel-efficient vehicles, which can help the environment.

One drawback of grey fleets is ensuring the drivers are adequately compensated. But when it comes to parking, that issue is moot, thanks to PayByPhone, the global leader in mobile parking payments.

No more complicated expense reports

With PayByPhone Business, a new fleet management solution from PayByPhone, a company’s parking comes under one easy-to-use, centralised system so fleet managers have visibility over all parking activity in a simple solution.

PayByPhone Business means fleet managers don’t have to reconcile large numbers of parking expense reports each month – parking is paid via the app in 15 seconds. Drivers don’t have to keep receipts every time they park for work, either.

A truly paperless solution

For grey fleet drivers, paying for parking is doubly complicated as they have to constantly distinguish between parking for work, which can be claimed on expenses, and parking at other times. With PayByPhone Business, if a grey fleet driver has a PayByPhone personal account, they can simply switch between business and personal payment cards on the PayByPhone app when they park – it is simple as that.

Simplified management

PayByPhone Business provides companies with real-time visibility of who is parking where and in what vehicle via the Reporting Suite. The interactive dashboard shows when and where grey fleet drivers have parked. There is no limit to the number of drivers that can be added.

To find out more and to sign up your fleet visit https://paybyphone.co.uk/business/paybyphone-business

How Octopus is trying to eliminate range anxiety with virtual charging

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By James Morris, Editor, WhichEV

Business is about certainty, data and accurate predictions. One of the most important aspects of running a modern business is cost control. Moving to your staff across to electric vehicles can raise a lot of variables – especially when it comes to key questions like where can I charge and how much will I be paying?

One year ago, Octopus put together a virtual charger network – inviting top brands like Ionity to join in order to offer broader choice and more standardised pricing. Members can easily find the best/nearest charger for themselves and billing happens directly onto your Octopus account at a suitably discounted rate.

Click here to read more…

Exciting executive EV choices coming soon

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By James Morris, Editor, WhichEV

Roll the clock back 10 years and the Nissan Leaf was one of the only electric cars available in the market, with a range around 100 miles and very few places you could get a charge. The EV landscape looks very different in 2021.

To help the specialist media get an idea of what is coming, the SMMT (Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders) recently held its annual press event at the Millbrook Proving Ground near Milton Keynes. WhichEV spent the day looking at some of the executive car options that fleet managers can now choose from.

Millbrook itself is secreted among the trees and you don’t really notice it until you hit the large exterior security gates. Access is strictly controlled, as the Proving Ground is used by manufacturers keen to get real-world test data on their up-coming products. There are three ‘tracks’, to help simulate all possible driving conditions.

The Race Track

This is an American-style oval, with heavy banking on the outside edge – so you can take fast cars to the max with minimum risk.

Town Track

Simulates the standard roads that we all drive around every day, including traffic lights and give-way signs. Let’s you examine visibility and manoeuvrability on tighter streets.

Hill Track

Starting with long, slow slopes, this track quickly builds to the most demanding combination of extreme elevation and tight turns under pressure you can imagine. Easy to believe that it might be based on the toughest country roads in Wales.

With limited time and over 100 cars on show, its important to prioritise. WhichEV’s focus was the latest Porsche Taycan, a new model from Audi and a look at the much-anticipated Hyundai Ioniq 5.

Porsche Taycan RWD

One of the only EVs to match Tesla for performance, Porsche has now launched a Taycan (pictured, above) with rear wheel drive that will hit 60mph in just over 5 seconds, with a top speed of 143mph and a WLTP range of 268 miles – all courtesy of a 79kWh battery. Most important? There are already leasing deals around the £585 mark for low-mileage business users. When combined with the 1% BiK right now, the performance and prestige of the badge will make the RWD version of the Taycan popular with executives.

Audi e-tron GT

With business leases starting a smidgeon under the £700 mark, Audi’s latest EV executive shares around 40% of its genetic profile with the Taycan – but with a softer ride and more luxurious interior. It sports a larger battery than the Porsche and can reach 60mph over a second quicker with a top speed of 152 for your favourite German autobahns. The WLTP is just over 300 miles and – at its peak – the GT will pick up 520 miles of range per hour of charge – topping out at 270kW DC.

Hyundai Ioni5 5

The latest iteration of Hyundai’s popular EV series comes with a 62kWh battery and 249 mile range – which doesn’t seem that special. However, the car is able to utilise a 175kW DC charger and pick up a peak of 450 miles per hour of charge. That’s enough to take you from ‘near empty’ to 80% in less than 20 minutes – which is very appealing for those who regularly drive long distances. Business leases for those using it more casually, will start around the £325 mark. Accelerating to 60 in around 8.5 seconds is good compared to fossil fuel cars, but fairly average for an EV. The top speed of 115mph is enough to lose your license on most European roads.

For all of the latest EV news and reviews, please check www.WhichEV.net.

The WhichEV View: JATO market data confirms massive increase in EV registrations in Europe

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By James Morris, Editor, WhichEV

For more than 30 years, Jato Dynamics has provided precision data on changes within the car market and their reports always make for interesting reading. Its latest update includes a summary of new vehicle registrations from across Europe for June 2021.

With the pandemic seemingly well behind us now, the patterns are becoming clear – with a strong emphasis on electric vehicles. WhichEV powers up the spreadsheet and checks the graphs.

Overall sales of 1.27 million vehicles is slightly down on the 1.47 new vehicles million registered in 2019, but it does mean that sales for the first half of the year finished up 27% compared to the start of 2020.

Pure battery electric vehicles totalled 126,000 units – around 25% ahead of the PHEV collective with 104,000 registrations.

It will come as little surprise that the companies with the strongest EV offerings did best in the sales charts – especially Tesla, the VW group and Ford. While the overall best seller in Europe is the evergreen VW Golf at 27,247 units, Tesla was right behind them with 25,697 sales of the Model 3…

To read the full article, hop over to WhichEV.

The WhichEV View: Why your company should buy you an EV today

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By James Morris, Editor, WhichEV

In April 2020, the Benefit-in-Kind (BIK) rate for EVs dropped to 0% for the tax year. It rose to 1% for 2021-22, then 2% for three years from 2022 to 2025. Given the previous rate 16%, these are significant changes.

In other words, if you received an electric vehicle as a company car this year, you paid no personal income tax on it until April 2021, and very little until at least 2025, whereas before April 2020 you’d have paid a lot more, making the reduction a significant incentive for employees to have an EV as a company car. In our previous article, we calculated that, if you received a Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus instead of a Mercedes C220d saloon as your company car from your employer, you’d save well over £10,000 over three years of use in terms of tax, fuel and other running costs.

But what are the incentives for the employer to buy you an EV? Other than providing an attractive perk for employees, why should your company go electric, when EVs still tend to be considerably more expensive than internal combustion engine cars? In a follow-up to our original article, we will show that buying an EV makes just as much sense for a company as it does for the employee that receives it, and even more so if you run your own Ltd company…

…Click here to read more.