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The start point for the best source of fleet information |
The light commercial vehicles have traditionally been seen as the poor relation of the company car and heavy goods vehicle markets. Not any longer, says Grahame Neagus, head of Lloyds TSB autolease's Specialist Commercial Vehicle Unit
Vans are no longer just looked upon as tools for transporting loads from A to B. Increasing pressures means fleet managers are becoming more demanding when choosing vehicles, and there is a greater emphasis on getting the best from them, from a technical, driver and legal compliance perspective.
As a result, companies that require a fleet of LCVs are now benefiting from innovations and advances made in the business car and HGV sectors.
In recent years, the systems and processes for business car fleet management have improved rapidly, and the introduction of, for example, web reporting for company cars has crossed over, bringing benefits to the LCV market. One of the companies that has contributed to this improvement is Lloyds TSB Autolease, which has developed 23 easy-to-use, online fleet management reports enabling customers to understand and manage their fleets more efficiently.
Increasingly, too, users are considering bespoke applications to maximise their fleet's efficiency, and this is an area where LCVs actually beats cars. An interesting example here was our development of the OSCAR4 Land Rover Defender conversion for E.ON to increase their payload capability by 25% and give them more flexibility.
The HGV sector has led the way in improving vehicle efficiency by introducing innovative features such as automatic gearboxes, better cabs and asset management tools. The LCV market previously viewed these advancements as being of no real benefit, so many users didn't adopt them, but times have changed.
Customers' expectations for service, expertise and innovation have cascaded down the weight range, and fleet managers now expect the LCV sector to offer vehicle understanding and service equal to their HGV counterparts.
End users are also increasingly turning to suppliers for recommendations on which vehicles are least damaging to the environment. A growing number of users are seeking to downsize their vehicles to maximise their load efficiency and reduce costs. I think this makes perfect sense from an environmental perspective too, as larger vehicles generally have a higher carbon footprint and are consequently more environmentally damaging than smaller vehicles.
The LCV market is changing rapidly and lessons learned from the engineering know-how in the HGV market and the customer service and processes of the company car sector have made it a viable and significant alternative for the fleet manager.
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