Leasedrive Velo Blog

Roddy Graham, Commercial Director

Great news – commuting times for those spending more than hour going to and from work have fallen for the first time in a decade.

According to the TUC, they dropped 1% between 2006 and 2007. And this has nothing to do with the recent credit crunch.

As one of the hardest working nations in Europe, we are also among the longest commuters so any reduction in time spent going to and from work has to be welcomed. Apparently, the fall can be partly attributed to the introduction of more flexible working patterns. Unfortunately, it seems that at least one in five workers spends more than an hour commuting and the average commuting time is still too high at 54 minutes. The biggest reduction was seen in London, with those commuting more than one hour in the capital dropping from 47% to 40%.

Flexible working is not only good for the individual in terms of helping create a better work/life balance but also is good for the environment and the employer. The employee travels less time, which has to be green, and, given greater flexibility by his employer, is a more productive employee in return.

If more employees were encouraged to work from home from time to time, then there would be less congestion on our roads, less commuters fighting for seats on public transport, all assisting in reducing frayed tempers and contributing to a greener environment. Again, organisations need to grasp the fact that we need to drive out the culture of ‘presenteeism’ and focus on employee output. Part of a top manager’s skills is in ensuring they gain maximum productivity from their employees.

Rounding off this blog, I couldn’t help but reflect yesterday on this topsy-turvy world. In the early 90s, Porsche was on its knees. Yesterday, for a brief while, it was the biggest company in the world based on market capitalisation, bigger than any other car maker or even Microsoft. The good thing about its 74.1% stake in Volkswagen, the third largest automotive manufacturer in the world, is that it might bring to an end the insidious practice of short-selling by hedge funds.

Several of these are now on their knees following betting on a sharp fall in VW shares. Instead these closed yesterday at 520 Euros, resulting in a market capitalisation of 153bn Euros, more than all the US and European automotive manufacturers combined!  No doubt, following this morning’s announcement, Porsche will make another killing in selling 5% of its shares in VW to ease the situation for some hedge funds. Let’s hope the latter don’t get off too lightly. The sooner the practice is stamped all together, the better in my view.

Roddy Graham, Commercial Director

Green seems to be the colour of the day with various new announcements made.

In many ways, with my Edinburgh City Car Club background (the first commercial car club to be launched in the UK), the Daimler car2go trial in Ulm in southern Germany interests me the most.

Basically, once enrolled, customers can rent Smart Fortwo cars by the minute and are then billed monthly. They don’t even have to book but can spontaneously jump in and drive off if the desire so takes them. It seems to be taking the Paris ‘Vélib’ two-wheel rental initiative to four wheels, but at a cost.

I will watch its progress with much interest. As an urban alternative to car ownership, it has huge potential, especially given the ease of parking the cars involved.

Still keeping to my north of the border reference comes news that Lothian and Borders Police have replaced a petrol patrol car with an electric Vectrix maxi scooter for patrolling distances of up to 30 miles within the Scottish capital. Apparently, the force, which already operates 48 LPG cars, opted for a scooter as they did not reckon an electric car would cope with Edinburgh’s hills!

Down south, London has seen the official opening of its first biogas fuelling station. It heralds the start of a six-month trial by Camden council of an Iveco street-cleaning vehicle powered by liquid bio-methane. The van covers a 60-mile route each day and, if the trial proves successful, other council vehicles will be run on bio-methane, which is claimed to be one of the greenest fuels around.

And completing a good week for green news, used green vehicles are outperforming the rest of the used car market when it comes to residuals. Alternative-fuelled vehicles are averaging up to 122% of guide prices according to BCA. Although small, the demand for hybrid electric/petrol vehicles has overtaken those of petrol/LPG ones.

Against the gloomy economic backdrop, it’s good to read some good news stories, especially if they are green ones. Let’s hope the fears that economic woes will take the focus off the environment are in fact wide of the mark and that governments, organisations and individuals will continue to champion the green cause.

Roddy Graham, Commercial Director

You don’t know which way to turn – one day the markets are up, the next they are down.

First, the financial markets. Last week saw an end-of-week revival on the world’s stock markets as ‘Super Gordon’ came to the global financial rescue. Even Bush Baby followed his lead.

Apparently armed with more mobiles than you get through in a decade and more contacts in his black book than Hugh Hefner, Brown is being hailed a hero around the globe.

He was even invited by the French to participate at a Euro finance ministers’ meeting last week to give attendees the benefits of his experience. He’s now trying to orchestrate a global financial summit as the markets dive once more on fears of recession compounded by rumours of a slowing Chinese economy.

Second, the oil markets. US oil prices are now dropping to $70 a barrel, half of what they were at their record high earlier in the year. Asda has dropped its price of unleaded to 99 pence a litre, saving a driver an average £10 per fill-up.

Third, the used car markets. After used car values had dropped by unprecedented levels (in some cases a full year’s depreciation in the space of several months) news comes in from a couple of auction houses that prices have seen a slight rise in September. How long that will be sustained will be a matter of conjecture, especially as finance on used car purchases has all but frozen up.

Whichever way you turn, the markets are topsy-turvy and the one key element lacking is confidence. After all, that’s why governments are injecting such huge amounts of taxpayers’ money into bolstering up the financial system by part-nationalising banks.

In my opinion, there are two further problems. As I have said before, there are too many people willingly talking themselves into a recession. So substitute a ‘positive attitude’ for ‘confidence’.

Next, there seems to be a ‘head in the sand’ mentality about those working the money markets. Why are they suddenly shocked about talk of a recession? We’ve all known it’s been coming for some time. What we don’t know is how deep it will be, and for how long it will last. Again, positive attitudes can do a lot to shorten the time and the severity.

Meanwhile, hold on to your seatbelts, the ride will continue to be bumpy!

Roddy Graham, Commercial Director

It had to happen. Big Brother has finally arrived on our roads with the imminent roll-out of Specs3. Specs3 you may ask, what’s that? It’s the new generation average speed camera soon to arrive near you.

Specs3 has just completed successful trials and will be installed shortly around the UK. Albeit at an average cost of £300,000 per network. That’s some outlay but I’m sure it’ll turn into a nice little earner.

The current average speed cameras are only good for a given stretch of road, with pairs of cameras spaced out at intervals. But they have proven effective in reducing speeds to the maximum prevailing temporary speed limit. Taking the recent stretch between Junctions 10 and 12 of the M4 motorway, they were catching only one in every 10,000 drivers. Besides acting as an effective deterrent, they kept the traffic flowing as well so their effectiveness appears to be proven.

What’s so special about Specs3? Well these average speed cameras will form a network up to 30 miles wide and even if you turn off a main stretch, you’ll still be in danger of being caught if you exceed the average prevailing speed limits. So if you think that once you’ve turned off a dual-carriageway, for example, you can then plant your right foot to the floor then think again. Roads leading from it will be monitored too and you’ll be caught in a Specs3 spider’s web.

I don’t like the fact that we are the most closely monitored society in the world, bar perhaps Monaco but then that little principality hardly counts. The fact is there are more CCTV cameras per head of the population than elsewhere. These Specs3 will compound our current situation but providing they are not just an excuse for generating revenue and they maintain traffic flows and, more importantly, increase road safety by reducing speeding, then I’m all for them.

My only concern is that drivers might be more focused on their speedos than what’s going on ahead on the road and surrounding areas. Cruise controls could become the order of the day, encouraging drivers to drift into a soporific state.

Specs3 and its counterparts are here to stay, make no mistake.

Roddy Graham, Commercial Director

The late Paul Newman came out with some wonderful quotes during his lifetime. One seems quite apposite in these current turbulent times… “From the beginning, our management philosophy was, ‘If we ever have a plan, we’re through’.”

It seems almost a waste of time to read newspaper reports on the current crisis as articles are overtaken by events. If you actually watched the FTSE100, performance on an hourly basis you would swiftly be driven to depressive paranoia so what chance has a five-year business plan got?

I have never ever believed in planning more than one year ahead as events are sure to make a major dent in original assumptions. Today, we can hardly plan three months ahead but plan we nevertheless have to do. But what we have to be mindful of is that nothing is carved in stone. We have to be flexible in an ever faster changing world. Mental as well as physical yoga is the order of the day.

It would appear that Prime Minister Gordon Brown is taking the latest turmoil in the financial markets seriously by appointing a ‘Cobra’ style response team to quickly react to any significant change in events, much as the Government already has in place to deal with acts of terrorism.

Hot foot off the presses comes news of another cabinet reshuffle.

Geoff Hoon, former chief whip, is made transport secretary to replace Ruth Kelly who resigned the day after the Prime Minister’s address to the Labour Conference for “family” reasons. Strange that she claimed that she did not mean to steal his thunder!

Geoff Hoon had the look of a rabbit caught in the headlights during the second Iraq conflict when he was secretary of state for defence between 1999 and 2005. Seen as probably more of a heavyweight transport secretary than those of late, with the probable exception both figuratively and literally of John ‘Two Jags’ Prescott let’s hope he can bring some much needed cohesion to his challenging task for an integrated transport policy.

Meanwhile, Peter Mandelson returns to the Cabinet as business secretary to strengthen the team tasked with the watching brief on the global financial turmoil. With his EU trade commissioner experience, let’s hope it’s third time lucky and there are no more skeletons in the cupboard.

While it’s difficult to plan too far ahead these days, if at all, it seems our PM is determined to give it his best shot and bring his Treasury experience to the fore. Former transport secretary Alistair Darling still has a lot to learn as Chancellor. If not myself, as I’m not a Gordon Brown fan, the markets should appear happier with steadier hands at the helm in these stormy waters.