Could the worst be over? Amidst predictions in some quarters that the end of the recession is already within sight, the latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) provide a further ray of light for a beleaguered industry.

The predictable fall in sales over July, to 107,635 petrol and diesel vehicles, was a drop of 17.9 per cent on a year ago, but has been received optimistically as it is the smallest drop so far in 2009.

This slowdown was  welcomed by the SMMT but they nevertheless sounded a note of caution, saying that a return to actual growth was unlikely until 2010.

The organisation’s Nikki Rooke told the BBC: “It probably won’t be until the very end of this year, possibly into 2010, that we start to see growth within the year-on-year production figures. But over the year to date we are still down nearly 50 per cent and that’s a considerable amount that needs to be made up.”

Unsurprisingly, the government cites the scrappage scheme as the X factor which has begun to breathe life back into the industry. Chancellor Alistair Darling recently told the media: “It’s not surprising that in the teeth of a pretty severe downturn, car production has gone down year on year. What we are now seeing though is an increase in production over the previous month and that is due to a significant extent to the introduction of the scrappage scheme.”

Time will tell. It is a measure of just how severe the downturn has been for the motor industry that a smaller fall than the previous month should generate optimism and expectation of recovery. But hope is something the motor industry certainly needs as we approach the fourth quarter of 2009.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8213623.stm

Colour is one of the subtlest aspects of car design, but one that still has an effect.  Many of us have wondered at the motivations of people driving mustard yellow, blancmange green, or fire engine red cars but in truth garish hues are relatively rare.

According to a recent poll by used car website Carmony, a massive 69 per cent of motorists choose white diesel or petrol cars. Silver cars follow in second place, making up 20 per cent of choices in the survey.

According to Carmony, drivers of white cars have a desire for perfection, simplicity, minimalism and a simple life, while silver car drivers think of themselves as cool, and have a taste for the futuristic and elegant.

Paul Coleman, Marketing Director at Carmony.co.uk, said: “Colour is an important part of the car buying equation and colour preference speaks volumes about the driver’s personality. We believe that when colour is combined with choice of manufacturer and model, it is a true personification of the owner.”

Well….perhaps. We’ve all heard of the legendary white van man – it doesn’t look like he has much in common with white car man!

http://www.fuelcards.co.uk/news/live_news.php?id=746

Earlier this month, the government alarmed commuters, many of whom use fuel cards, by backing plans for a new tax on parking.

A pilot scheme in Nottingham – lucky them – will see companies with more than ten parking spaces for their staff charged £250 for each space in the first year, rising to £350 in the second year.

The scheme aims to reduce congestion by deterring motorists from making unnecessary journeys burning fuel, and the funds raised will reportedly be used to fund public transport.

A laudable aim from one point of view, but – and this is the crucial bit – employers will be permitted to pass the levy onto employees using the spaces. This is clearly, in the words of the AA, a “tax on parking”.

As if fuel tax and commercial car parking rates weren’t already steep – and getting steeper – employees fortunate enough to work for companies with private parking facilities may soon have to pay £350 a year just to leave their cars outside the office. Let’s face it; streets with abundant free parking are few and far between in any town or city.

Many workers have no choice but to drive to their place of work – especially if it is in a remote location, with inadequate public transport links. Shift workers will be particularly badly hit.

When will the government cease to treat motorists as a cash cow to be endlessly milked?

The UK’s lorry drivers carry out vital work on a daily and nightly basis which benefits us all, from the food on our shop shelves, to the fuel we buy on the forecourts. However, certain criminal elements in the woodwork seem to think that their actions towards our hauliers will not have disastrous knock-on effects.

We are of course talking about the freight thefts and hijackings which are believed to cost the economy some £250 million per year; no wonder thousands of lorry drivers, many of whom pay safely for their diesel at the pumps with fuel cards, are sleeping with one eye open at rest stops!

Last week organisation Truckersworld told BBC Newsbeat that thefts of goods from lorries have increased by 63 per cent over the last year, with the vast majority occurring while drivers are stationary and catching up on some well-deserved sleep. Drivers are now warning that the costs may be passed on to consumers unless immediate action is taken to protect them.

In addition to wares being stolen from the trailer, thieves tend to prey on the driver’s cab itself. As these hauliers spend such long hours on the road requiring extended rest breaks, they tend to have home comforts such as TVs, music systems and other luxuries in their cab – and understandably so! Unfortunately these also make them easy prey to crooks.

Exasperated HGV driver Pete Minns, who has himself been targeted in the past, told the programme: “There are certain areas of the country where you just wouldn’t want to be overnight. They have spotters: one in front of the cab making sure you don’t wake up and one behind taking the goods.”

Why should hauliers, who do what they can to make their jobs as comfortable and efficient as possible, be punished when they have a little shut-eye?

The Department of Transport and other industry bodies should do what they can to transform the act of sleeping from the seeming liability it is now to the deserved break it should be.

The motoring industry’s cheer this week was virtually audible as new figures from the Office of National Statistics suggested green shoots of recovery, with a 13.5 per cent rise in domestic car manufacturing.

‘Green shoots’ is a phrase you see banded about a lot in the current economic climate, but we believe, along with other experts, that the scrappage scheme has stimulated demand, which means a lot more lovely shiny motors coming off the end of the production line.

After all, this is the industry’s best performance since January 2007 and, in car-making terms, that’s a long time.

More cars is always good news for us as a major fuel card company, but this latest jump was good news for the country’s manufacturing industry as a whole, as the spike led to an overall manufacturing output of 0.4 per cent.

Meanwhile there was further good news as the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders announced new car registrations also rose by 2.4 per cent in July, the first growth in 15 months.

While the Telegraph erred on the side of caution in response to the rise in car sales by saying “more work needs to be done”, and we of course urge the Government to pledge its ongoing support of the motoring industry to ensure this isn’t just a temporary triumph, on this occasion we say: every little helps. Let good news be good news for once, please.

Britain’s best-selling tabloid, the “super soaraway” Sun, has a stark warning for scrappage buyers, including fuel card users, today: anyone buying a new vehicle “could see thousands wiped off the value of their vehicle within months”.

Quoting used car website carsite.co.uk, the paper notes that new cars lose an average £23 in value every single day for six months after they have rolled off the showroom floor.

On average, a new car loses £23 per day during the first six months of ownership. That adds up to more than £4000, twice the scrappage discount.

Alistair Jeff of carsite.co.uk told the Sun: “Bearing in mind that the scrappage scheme is a result of the credit crunch and is promoted to consumers as an initiative that’s supposed to help them with their finances, the wisdom of buying a new car is questionable when depreciation is taken into account.”

He added: “The attraction of replacing an old car that’s a bit tatty and lacks the latest technology and trimmings for a brand spanking new vehicle is easy to understand but it’s not the only way of acquiring an immaculate quality vehicle.”

Meaning, of course – buy a quality used car. Clearly new cars are not for everyone. Car enthusiasts and businesses, many of them fuel card users, often prefer shiny new models. But for most of us, the frequently enormous price differences between brand new cars and lightly worn models (£12,000 or more is not uncommon) make the used car showroom the only possible choice.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/money/2559159/Car-scrappage-scheme-just-rubbish.html

Your tyres – it’s easy to take them for granted, but they keep you on the road. Literally. Tyre damage, a puncture, or some other sudden failure of those all-important rubber shields can result in a serious or even fatal crash.

And yet, when cash is tight and business is pressing, it’s all too easy to keep on driving and put off those basic checks and that vital maintenance a few more days or another week.

But don’t. Don’t cut corners on safety during the economic downturn – that’s the new message from tyre company Bridgestone and it’s one we wholeheartedly endorse.

We all want to cut spending and save money during the recession, but drivers and fuel card users should beware of reducing health and safety checks.

A study of 100,000 European drivers by Bridgestone revealed that 10.3 per cent had cars that were fitted with tyres worn beyond the legal 1.6 mm tread depth limit, dramatically increasing their risk of skids and high speed punctures.

According to the AA, tyres were the second most frequent cause of breakdowns in 2008: resulting in a massive 331,000 call-outs.

Are cash-strapped drivers, including fuel card users, postponing the purchase of new tyres and deliberately driving for too long on worn threads? Bridgestone Senior Analyst Andy Dingley thinks so.

“Leaving changing your tyres to the last minute is a false economy,” he says. “Driving with tyres below the legal limit could involve a fine of up to £2500 pounds and three points per tyre. At worst those tyres could cause an accident, putting not only the driver and passengers at risk, but also other road users.”

It’s hard to argue with that. So go on – give the garage a ring. Now.

A new report by a committee of MPs caused a stir last week with its bold claim that motorists have lost all faith in road tax.

Thanks to poor handling and mixed messages from the Government, a cynical and disillusioned attitude has set in among drivers, including fuel card users.

The committee said: “Fuel duty has been presented, at different times, as a tool to reduce carbon emissions, a source of general revenue, and a means to fund transport investment.”

“Unacceptable” congestion charges and environmental taxes came in for particular criticism, with the MPs claiming that inconsistent government messages have caused widespread confusion and disillusionment.

Transport Committee Chair Louise Ellman added: “The government handled a phased set of increases to Vehicle Excise Duty so badly they tarnished the image of environmental taxes.”

Who could argue with the committee’s conclusion that motorists should be treated fairly and openly by those in power? Hooray for that, we say. Who among us, as we go about our daily business on the roads, has not felt at times that we are treated like a cash cow shamelessly milked for funds whenever the government feels the need?

Will the government listen to the committee? We can only hope but it is hard to be optimistic. Meanwhile, yet another increase in fuel duty is rapidly approaching the hard-pressed and anxious British road user.

The government will fight for every last job at the Vauxhall plant in Ellesmere Port – that was the message from Business Secretary Peter Mandelson last week.

His visit coincided with reports that more than 800 jobs at the plant could be axed if Canadian bidder Magna International succeeds in its attempt to take over Vauxhall and sister firm Opel in Germany as European subsidiaries of recently restructured US car giant General Motors (GM).

The Ellesmere Port plant employs 2,200 workers to build the robust and reliable models enjoyed by Vauxhall-driving fuel card users.

Up to 20 per cent of GM’s European workforce could go if Magna succeeds in its bid, including 354 workers at Vauxhall’s smaller Luton plant.

This possibility should sadden every British driver, whether a fuel card user or not. In the midst of a recession, the very last thing the hard-hit British motoring industry needs is further redundancies and dismemberment.

It is a hard world, and the British motoring industry needs to be competitive on the global stage. But why is it only now that we hear solid pledges of government support for the Vauxhall workers, when takeover talks have been rumbling on in Germany for months?

As the recession rumbles onwards, we’ve seen some truly iconic names in the international motor industry teetering or even falling over: a moribund General Motors has been propped up by the US government after amassing colossal debts; LDV has gone into administration with the loss of hundreds of jobs; and Japanese car giant Toyota has announced its biggest ever annual loss. And those are just a few of the examples we could cite.

And now Toyota’s recently appointed president, Akio Toyoda, grandson of the man who founded the firm in the mid-1930s, has predicted at least another two years of “stormy waters”.

Will this gloomy prediction come true, or is the light at the end of the tunnel a little closer than that? Time will tell, but in spite of all the bad news this year, we cannot waste too much time worrying about what might happen. Business, and life, goes on. The road transport industry is the backbone of British business, and petrol and diesel the fuel which keeps the wheels of industry turning.

So keep on trucking!