Truck rental booming
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• Ford and Iveco Ford's overwhelming domination of Britain's van and truck rental and leasing fleets continues, judging by the latest figures from the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association.
Last year Ford and Iveco Ford accounted for almost 45% of the commercial vehicle rental fleet from car-derivedvans up to 38-tonne trctive units, says the BVRLA. This was unchanged from 1985, but in a fast expanding rental pare it represents an increase of over 6,000 vehicles.
The nearest competitor to Ford and Iveco Ford in the rental market is the Rover Group, which is classified by BVRLA as including Freight Rover and Leyland Trucks. Last year Rover Group vehicles accounted for 13.4% of the rental pare, a drop of 0.8%. Despite taking a smaller share of the market, Rover • Competitors in next weekend's Multipart Supertruck trophy meeting at Silverstone are hoping that the fiasco at last month's European truck racing championship meeting at Germany's Nurburing circuit will not be repeated.
Overall championship leader Slim Borgudd in his Detroit Diesel-powered Volvo White found himself left far behind after thinking there had been a false start in the Superfinal. Curt Goransson, however, took no chances, blasting away in his 'N' Series Volvo and holding the lead all the way to the chequered flag, hotly pursued by Rolf Bjork.
There was a major shunt at the first bend with Claude Cuynet's Renault, Mel Lyndsey's T45 Roadtrain and Brian Garnett's Leyland Buffalo all suffering serious damage.
After the fifth round of the European truck championship Rod Chapman and Richard Walker lead Classes 1 and 2 respectively while Slim Borgudd is number one in Class 3 and the overall championship leader. Group's CV sales to the rental market grew Last year from 10,634 to 11,289.
General Motors' share of the rental sector also fell last year: the company took 8.9%, compared with 9.7% in 1985.
Sales of imports to the CV rental pare rose slightly between 1985 and 1986, but their percentage share of the growing market fell slightly.
Over the year as a whole, the rental pare (as reported by BVRLA members) rose by a total of 17.8% to 88,274 vehicles. Of those around 39% were issued on a rental basis, while the remaining 61% were on contract hire, leasing or fleet management agreements. Contract hire alone accounts for around 54% of all rental agreements involving commercial vehicles.
LI Last year there were 44,223 light vans (below 3.5 tonnes) in Britain's rental pare, with 13,148 3.5-7.5-tonners and 13,327 HGVs.
• Goods vehicle registrations for vehicles above 1,525kg unladen weight increased by 22% in June compared with the same month last year, according to the latest statistics from the Department of Transport. New registrations of maximum-weight artics were up by 40% over the same period.
Over the 12 months to June new registrations of all goods vehicles were up 4% on the previous year, while registrations for maximumweight artics were up by 18%.