ANYVAN

Case for road charging “compelling” says IFS

Karen Dickinson — Tue, 15 May 2012 10:56:56 +0000

The courier services team was interested by a report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, funded by the RAC Foundation, that has suggested that a “radical overhaul” of road taxes is necessary. Fuel and Vehicle Excise duties currently raise about £38bn a year but are set to fall to the equivalent of £25bn in 2029-30, partly due to cars becoming electrified and more fuel-efficient. Filling that gap would require a whopping 50% rise in fuel duty, which won’t be good news for transport companies and man and van teams.

The IFS suggests moving towards a system of road charging, including road tolls, to make up for the loss of revenue. A solution would be to charge drivers by the mile, with higher pricing in congested areas at peak times. The IFS says: “Such a move would generate substantial economic efficiency gains from reduced congestion, reduce the tax levied on the majority of miles driven, leave many motorists better off, and provide a stable long-term footing for motoring taxes without necessarily raising net additional revenues from drivers.”

A shift from motoring taxes to a system of national road pricing would be controversial, but it could be used to encourage drivers to avoid the busiest times and routes by varying the amount they are charged for making journeys. It would be an enormous change to UK motoring, but surely a 50% rise is fuel duty would be just as unpalatable, and anything that reduces congestion is surely a good idea?

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Potholes a thing of the past?

Karen Dickinson — Sun, 13 May 2012 10:37:52 +0000

The courier services team at Anyvan aren’t big fans of potholes, and we’re sure you aren’t either – they damage vehicles and cost motorists an estimated £320 million pounds every year. Well, the nemesis of man and van teams and delivery companies everywhere will hopefully be a little less of a regular occurrence if the University of Nottingham has anything to do with it.

Students are working with the county council to try out a revolutionary way of mixing the materials used to mend damaged roads. The technique is more expensive than the usual method but it can increase the life of a repaired pothole from four years to a rather impressive 15. The team will use thermal imaging cameras to study temperature changes within the mixed materials and see how it bonds to the existing road surface.

Andy Warrington, Nottinghamshire County Council’s service director for highways said: “There are several different ways of repairing and patching potholes available to us and this is just one of many we could use in the future.”

We’ll be watching their progress with interest. Anyone who can help tackle the UK’s pothole problem is a friend of ours!

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MoT success depends on where you live

Karen Dickinson — Fri, 11 May 2012 12:41:48 +0000

The courier services team were rather tickled to come across a story in today’s Telegraph about the geographical differences thrown up by an in-depth analysis of the UK’s MoT records. It turns out that the area you live or drive in has a big effect on the reasons your vehicle might fail its MoT.

Motoring website honestjohn.co.uk has obtained the records and they make for interesting reading for delivery companies, man and van teams and anyone else who does a lot of driving. They found that more than one in 10 MoT failures in Milton Keynes were due to defective brake and suspension, which is more than 60 per cent higher than the rest of the country. Aberdeen is the worst place to keep a car with a failure rate of 45 per cent, five per cent higher than the rest of the UK. London emerges as a good place to pass your MoT, with an above average overall pass rate, and the South-East of the country, and Romford in particular, tops the table with a 70 per cent pass rate – pretty good going.

You can check out your areas pass rates at the Honest John website. “This information has been kept from car owners for many years,” said Daniel Harrison, the websites editor. “Hard-pressed families can take this information and use it to ensure that they’re not failing an MoT on something that can be easily fixed beforehand.”

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Driverless vehicles – a reality?

Karen Dickinson — Wed, 09 May 2012 11:50:12 +0000

Last month, on April the 1st in fact, the courier services team posted a story about driverless vehicles that were about to be launched on the unsuspecting roads of Oxford. We were, as you might expect, suspicious that this was a bit of an April Fools’ joke but we never found out if the Sunday Times had made it all up or not. However, today we’ve come across a story about driverless cars being allowed on the roads of Nevada, and it’s definitely not April the 1st today.

The state has approved a licence for America’s first self-driven car. The first one out on the open road will be a Toyota Prius modified by Google, who are the unlikely pioneers in driverless car technology. The car uses video cameras, radar sensors and lasers to detect pedestrians, obstacles and other cars and, with the help of GPS, can drive itself without intervention from the person sitting inside. However, before transport companies and local couriers get too excited about laying off all their drivers, it’s worth knowing that one of the licensing conditions is that there are two people inside the car at all times: one in the driving seat and the other monitoring the a computer screen that shows the car’s planned route as well as potential hazards on the roads.

California state Senator Alex Padilla said: “The vast majority of vehicle accidents are caused by human error. Through the use of computers, sensors and other systems, an autonomous vehicle is capable of analysing the driving environment more quickly and operating the vehicle more safely.”

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Fuel saving tips

Karen Dickinson — Mon, 07 May 2012 10:35:02 +0000

The courier services team are waiting with interest to find out the result of the tanker driver ballot on Friday as we’ll then know whether a fuel strike is on the cards or not. If it is, we want to be prepared, as we think all delivery companies and man and van teams will want to be. With this in mind, we’ve put together a few useful tips on fuel efficiency to see you through these lean times.

Engine service

A well tuned engine can help to improve on fuel economy. Change your oil and have your engine serviced regularly. It’s important that you’re using the right kind of oil too – higher quality oils can improve engine efficiency.

Close your windows

Keeping your windows closed will reduce drag and stop you putting your foot down harder to compensate. Not so attractive in the summer months, but we doubt you’ve had your windows open much lately!

Keep your tyres inflated

If your tyres are properly inflated they’ll last longer and keep you safer too. A tyre that is just 10% under inflated will reduce fuel economy.

Stick to the higher gears

The higher the gear you drive in, the lower the engine speed will be, which will help to save fuel. It also helps to avoid high speeds – driving just a few miles per hour below the speed limit can make big savings.

Stay smooth

Aggressive driving can use a lot more fuel than smooth driving. Keep it steady and avoid accelerating or breaking too hard. If you’ve stopped for any length of time, switch the engine off – an idling engine is just wasting money.

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Honda to end traffic jams!

Karen Dickinson — Sat, 05 May 2012 10:09:11 +0000

Well, hopefully. The courier services team were very pleased to read about Honda’s development of traffic jam avoidance technology. Developed in partnership with the Research Centre for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo, the system works by monitoring the acceleration and deceleration patterns of a vehicle to determine whether the driver’s actions are likely to cause congestion.

If a driver speeds up and slows down often, rather than maintaining a constant speed, they can trigger traffic jams. The system provides the driver with information, via a colour coded display on the dashboard, to help them drive smoothly and minimize the likelihood of a jam. Even more impressively, Honda hope that in the future on board terminals will connect cars to a ‘cloud’ server, enabling them to communicate with each other and their drivers, enabling cars to maintain a constant distance from each other and keeping traffic flowing smoothly.

Pretty impressive, eh? We think that transport companies would find this an absolute godsend, saving many man hours spent snarled up in traffic on the M25. Honda is rolling out the first public-road testing of the technology in Italy and Indonesia this month. There’s no date as yet for the system’s commercial launch, but we’ll be keeping you posted!

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Facebooking more dangerous than drink driving

Karen Dickinson — Thu, 03 May 2012 08:56:04 +0000

The courier services team was interested to read new research from the Institute of Advanced Motoring and the Transport Research Laboratory that Facebooking and Tweeting when driving is more dangerous than drink driving. Between 2006 and 2010 distraction from mobile phones was a contributory factor in 1,690 road accidents which resulted in injuries, including 110 fatal accidents. This is a pretty high number, but Peter Rodger, Chief Examiner at the IAM, thinks even more go unreported: “Mobile phone records are not routinely checked for activity prior to a collision unless it involves serious injuries. It is also impossible to check for activity which has not resulted in a phone record, for example simply unlocking the screen to check for messages.”

The study found that when using Facebook drivers spent between 40 and 60 per cent of their time looking down while using a smartphone to read or write messages, compared with about 10 per cent of the time looking down normally. Reaction times slowed by nearly 38 per cent and drivers often missed events entirely. The study also found that drivers using Facebook were unable to maintain a central lane position which led them to stray out of their lane.

Though using a smartphone for social networking didn’t slow reaction times as much as having a hand-held mobile phone conversation did, it did slow them more than drink driving or being under the influence of cannabis. The IAM are calling on all motorists to be aware of the risks of using a mobile phone when driving. Whilst they can be useful tools for delivery companies and man and van teams, for example looking at maps or checking for traffic updates, be sure to pull over first. Sat-Nav might be irritating at times, but at least it’s safe!

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Traffic warden goes beyond the call of duty

Karen Dickinson — Tue, 01 May 2012 08:45:17 +0000

The courier services team at Anyvan aren’t the biggest fans of traffic wardens, and we’re sure you aren’t either, but we were rather impressed by this guy and his total dedication to his job:

The very determined traffic warden, identified as Nguyen Manh Phan, was attempting to get the coach driver to pay a fixed penalty notice when the driver just moved off, presuming, not unreasonably we think, that Mr Phan would have to let him go. However, in an unprecedented show of tenacity, Mr Phan simply clung on for all he was worth.

With only a flimsy pair of windscreen wipers to cling on to, Mr Phan was driven over half a mile, all the while shouting ‘Call the police!’. The coach driver, named as Phung Hong Phuong, eventually pulled over after being chased by the police and locals. Phuong was arrested for resisting public officials, and we’d hope for something like dangerous driving too, and could face up to three years in prison. He’s got some form though, having previously served four years for a fatal traffic accident.

Mr Phan, we salute your courage. And can see that perhaps the best thing to do is to pay our parking tickets promptly, rather than trying to escape…

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Fuel dispute rumbles on

Karen Dickinson — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 09:33:05 +0000

The courier services team were disappointed to learn that union officials have voted against a proposed deal and recommended that their members to do the same, meaning that a fuel tanker strike in on the cards once again.

There are just over 2,000 tanker drivers which haul around 90% of the country’s fuel supplies. They believe, as do their union, that the industry is too fragmented and therefore health and safety issues, and pay levels, are too wide and confusing. Though union officials recognised that progress had been made on the issues of health, safety and training, they expressed concern that the proposals didn’t go far enough in bringing stability to the sector through industry minimum standards. Concerns were also raised about employment security, sub-contracting and pensions. The tanker drivers will be balloted next month. If they too vote against the deal, then we could be facing panic buying and fuel shortages on a level worse than those of earlier this month.

Unite assistant general secretary, Diana Holland, said: ‘The proposals represent progress on some of the key areas such as health and safety. But it is clear that they do not give enough guarantees that the instability and insecurity gripping the industry will come to an end.”

We’re still hopeful that the dispute can be diffused and a strike can be averted, enabling delivery companies and man and van teams to keep working as usual, but we’ll be keeping an eagle eye on new developments for you.

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250 years of global transport in 3 minutes

Karen Dickinson — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 08:58:03 +0000

The courier services team thought they’d seen a lot of traffic of late until they checked out this video. Called “Welcome to the Anthropocene“, it charts every road network, flight path and shipping route as they spread around the world through 250 years from the industrial revolution to the present day.

The film was commissioned by an international conference called Planet Under Pressure. Some scientists think that we’ve entered a new geological era that needs a new name – the Anthropocene – to reflect humanity’s influence on our planet, most notably in what we’re doing to the Earth’s climate. Humans are so numerous, and use so many of the Earth’s resources, that we’re disrupting the cycles of biology, chemistry and geology.

It’s a fascinating video which demonstrates the ingenuity of humans and the amazing networks that transport companies have built up around the globe. Though the emphasis is on the damage being done to the environment, it’s not without hope: “We have shaped our past, we are shaping our present, we can shape our future…we are the first generation to realise this new responsibility. As the population grows to nine billion, we must find a safe operating space for humanity, for the sake of future generations.”

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