A NEW system of fuel scale charges has muddied the water for fleets considering whether or not to scrap the perk of providing company car drivers with free fuel for private motoring.

CUSTOMS & Excise has announced new VAT rates for employers to apply if they give company car drivers free fuel for private motoring.

FLEET suppliers are expecting a flood of enquiries from companies looking for help in gauging the effect of the proposed new fuel scale charge system.

'Most of the changes in the Budget have been described in Fleet News and for many fleet people there will have been no great surprises. The only change of any significance is the way the fuel scale charge will work in the future.'

SMALL fleets have received a tax bonus from the Government, following the Chancellor of the Exchequer's decision to reduce the corporation tax starting rate from 10% to zero for companies with taxable profits below £10,000.

BUDGET measures aimed at promoting the use of environmentally-friendly vehicles could encourage companies to investigate 'green' fleets.

MINI general manager Trevor Houghton-Berry explains why the supermini is set to be a star in the used market.

Outsourcing has been a phrase hanging over the heads of fleet managers for many years as an apparent threat to their futures. But does outsourcing fleet management mean there is no need for an in-house fleet manager?

A NEW no-frills contract hire company has been launched which specialises in contracts of between six and 18 months.

MID-market power players are a new force in car leasing that will threaten the dominance of larger rivals, a contract hire chief has forecast. Speaking at the Leasing Life conference, CitiCapital Fleet managing director Colin Tourick, claimed 'the big boys could be getting too big.'

TOM Parker, the pneumatics and hydraulics firm, has ordered a fleet of 15 LPG vehicles as part of a green drive. The firm ordered the vehicles through Cameron Clarke Leasing, based in Lancashire, which is a member of the Lex Vehicle Partners network.

Congestion charging and a need to return to fun motoring are behind a growing band of fleet drivers opting for two wheels instead of four, which has prompted new ventures in the leasing industry to meet expected demand.

FLEET managers could help staff reduce their tax bills and provide them 'two vehicles for the price of one' by opting for two-wheeled motoring.

SCAFFOLDING firm Deborah Services has awarded a £1 million vehicle supply contract to JCT 600 Contracts.

THE park ranger service of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority has renewed a fleet supply contract with Vauxhall MasterHire worth £160,000.

ACT summer conference and AGM to be held in Nottingham in June.

National Car Rental has appointed Anoushka Drexhage as its new director of business travel for Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Berlin-based gedas, which describes itself as a system integrator, is playing a major role in the development of a traffic management system for the Olympic Games 2004 in Athens.

DR WOLFGANG Reitzle has quit his job as the global head of Ford's Premier Automotive Group.

An interactive workshop on driver tiredness, eyesight, mobile phone use and drink and drugged driving.

Abbey National has sold First National Vehicle Holdings (FNVH), its contract fleet hire businesses, to Lloyds TSB Asset Finance Division in a deal worth £447 million.

Fuel scale charges to be based on CO2 emissions, incentives for businesses buying low emission cars, freeze on fuel duties, including LPG and CNG, and VED discounts for van fleets - some of the highlights of the 2002 budget.

THE Government is investigating the impact of charging fleets and private motorists to drive on motorways and trunk roads, despite claiming that it has no intention of introducing road tolls.

UP to three-quarters of UK firms have reported staff quitting cash-for-car schemes and moving back into company cars, according to a new report.

BREWING giant Carlsberg-Tetley is backing a move to put almost 2,000 drivers through a new driver risk assessment programme in a bid to slash accidents and cut insurance costs by 25%.

VAUXHALL'S new Vectra is expected to offer competitive contract hire rates following the release of its first residual values forecast.

LEX Vehicle Leasing saw a huge surge in fleet car deliveries last month and a major swing to diesel as drivers minimised their tax bills under the new CO2-based system.

THE John Lewis Partnership is introducing the Whitechapel employee car ownership scheme for its 580 company car drivers.

IVECO has extended warranties on all Daily City Trucks from two to three years/100,000 miles, including vehicles bought from the beginning of this year.

MITSUBISHI is contacting owners of 41,000 Shoguns purchased between 1990 and 1999 after a series of steering failures.