28 November 2019

• UK commercial vehicle production stable in October, down just -0.2%.
• Output for overseas market up 9.3%, but production of home orders drops -8.5%.
• Year-to-date performance falls in double digits, down -11.5%.

UK commercial vehicle (CV) production was stable in October down just -0.2%, with 9,065 units manufactured, according to figures released today by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). Output for crucial overseas markets was up some 9.3%, but production for the domestic market fell -8.5% in the face of weakening demand.

In the month, factories turned out just 15 units fewer than in the same period in 2018, as key new model production ramped up, with just over half of all those made heading abroad, 51.3%. Performance in the year to date remains down, however, falling by -11.5% overall, with the decline driven primarily by dwindling exports, down -16.6%, but also a fall in production for the UK market by a more modest -3.6%. All told just over 62,000 new CVs have been made in Britain this year.

Mike Hawes, SMMT Chief Executive, said,

Some stability for commercial vehicle production in October is welcome, but it’s far too early to tell if this will last, not least due to a fluctuating fleet buying cycles and model changeovers affecting output. Year-to-date figures paint a clearer picture; with CV output decreasing, and orders at home and abroad down. Preserving beneficial trading arrangements with the EU and other global markets is crucial to the future success of the industry so we need a new relationship based on free and frictionless trade.

28 November 2019

The UK Bus Awards will turn 25 next year and much has happened over the past quarter of a century.

But never before has the industry the awards celebrate seen so much change and innovation, with everything from new, cleaner drivetrains, to ride-hailing, on-demand services and driverless vehicles become ever-more prominent.

So, when leading figures from the UK’s bus sector gathered in London last week for this year’s event, it wasn’t just the usual categories that were up for grabs. The audience also found themselves applauding the winners of Cultural Change award for the very first time, and other honours for the likes of environmental performance and road safety.

UK Bus Awards Director, Steve Cresswell said, “The awards are operated on behalf of the industry, so behind the awards is a management panel of 12 members, who are picked to fairly represent all areas of the industry.

“Change and innovation has been at the top of our agenda at the UK Bus Awards team for some time, but 2019 saw the continued introduction of new categories to reflect the changing face of the industry, in particular, the Cultural Change category.

“We also trialled new and innovative way to enter the awards, especially looking towards social media.”

Steve continued, “The Cultural Change award was a category that we considered very carefully before we introduced it.

“We had to ensure the award adequately reflected the desired culture of the industry, and that it accurately embodied the whole scope of the diversity within it.

“In the end, the category was very hotly contested and National Express West Midlands took Gold for the clear and inspirational message they send to the industry through their staff empowerment projects.”

Fittingly, for an award celebrating cultural change, the inaugural award was presented by Sonya Veerasamy, CEO of Women in Transport.

Steve continued, “It was important for us have this inaugural award presented by an organisation in tune with Industry progress

“Although currently women represent just 20% of the workforce within the industry, this number is rising year on year, so as the industry becomes ever-younger, more inclusive and more ethnically diverse, it is important that our awards reflect this change.”

Another recent change to the awards is the shift in focus from corporate success to human success.

Steve explained: “The UK Bus industry is ultimately driven by it’s people and the passengers.

“By building an awards ceremony that concentrates on the individuals that make up these corporations, we aim to celebrate the stories behind the operators, and in doing so, promote the industry as a whole, on a human level.

“Ultimately we raise awareness outside the confines of the bus industry, especially among passengers.”

The biggest winner at this year’s awards was Nottingham City Transport, which won five honours, including the highly contested ‘best in show’ category, UK Bus Operator of the Year and Top National Bus Driver.

Stagecoach UK Bus also won big, with a breathtaking 13 awards. The company’s outstanding performance saw them take home four golds, five silver and four bronze.

National Express West Midlands won the inaugural Cultural Change Award for its Master Driver scheme, which recognises driver excellence.

Here’s the full list of winners:

UK Bus Operator of the Year sponsored by Gallagher and QBE Insurance
Gold: Nottingham City Transport
Silver: Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire
Bronze: Ensignbus

Top National Bus Driver: the Chris Moyes Memorial Award, sponsored by Volvo Bus
Gold: Jatinder Kumar, Nottingham City Transport
Silver: Keith Thomas, First Cymru
Bronze: Gurnam Singh, Stagecoach West

Top City Operator sponsored by INIT Innovations
Gold: Nottingham City Transport
Silver: Brighton & Hove Buses
Bronze: Stagecoach Manchester

Top Shire Operator sponsored by Ticketer
Gold: Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire
Silver: Stagecoach East Scotland
Bronze: Oxford Bus Company

Top Independent Operator sponsored by Omnibus
Gold: Ensignbus
Silver: Prentice Coaches
Bronze: Courtney Buses

Top National Bus Depot sponsored by Personal Group
Gold: Blairgowrie, Stagecoach East Scotland
Silver: Reading, Reading Buses
Bronze: Swindon, Go South Coast, Swindon’s Bus Company

London Bus Garage of the Year sponsored by TfL
Gold: Norwood, Arriva London
Silver: Romford, Stagecoach London
Bronze: Croydon, Go-Ahead London

Top London Bus Driver sponsored by TfL and Luke Rees-Pulley Charitable Trust
Gold: Wasiq Ali – RATP Dev London
Silver: Nick Kukaj, Abellio London
Bronze: Peter Huttly, Go-Ahead London

Making Buses a Better Choice: The Peter Huntley Memorial Award sponsored by Heathrow
Gold: Translink – Glider
Silver: Oxford Bus Company – PickMeUp
Bronze: First West of England – metrobus Bristol

Bus and the Community sponsored by CBW
Gold: Oxford Bus Company – Brand the Bus!
Silver: Translink – Stuff a Bus
Bronze: Metroline – School Library Bus

Environment
Gold: The Harrogate Bus Company – Harrogate Electrics
Silver: Stagecoach South – Guildford park & ride electric buses
Bronze: Go South Coast, Bluestar – The UK’s first air filtering bus

Cultural Change
Gold: National Express West Midlands – Master Driver
Silver: Oxford Bus Company – Cultural Change Journey
Bronze: Stagecoach West – West Wellbeing

New Horizons sponsored by Passenger Transport
Gold: Abellio London – Mobileye
Silver: Omnibus – CrewPlan
Bronze: West Berkshire Council – Newbury e-paper next bus pilot

Marketing Initiative of the Year sponsored by Bus and Coach Buyer
Gold: Stagecoach Yorkshire and PARTNERS – Stimulating senior bus travel
Silver: Visit Isle of Wight – Explore by bus
Bronze: Lothian – Cruiselink

ROSCO Award for Innovation in Road Safety
Gold: Arriva Yorkshire – Driving a strong safety culture
Silver: Abellio London – Mobileye
Bronze: Translink – Glider driver training programme

Sustained Marketing Excellence sponsored by Global
Gold: First West of England – Going for Growth
Silver: Uno – People Against Ordinary
Bronze: Stagecoach East Scotland – Express City Connect

Leader of the Year, sponsored by Euro Bus Expo 2020
Gold: Damian Bannon – Translink
Silver: Raj Chander – Arriva Midlands
Bronze: Urvi Patel – Abellio London

Engineer of the Year sponsored by IRTE
Gold: Stephen Stringer – Warrington’s Own Buses
Silver: Jack Abbott – Stagecoach Manchester
Bronze: Paul Slaney – Translink

Unsung Heroes sponsored by Backhouse Jones
Gold: Shelia Swift – Nottingham City Transport

Young Manager of the Year sponsored by Metroline
Gold: Jack Abbott – Stagecoach Manchester
Silver: Kerrie Grant – Go South Coast, Bluestar
Bronze: Adam Green – Arriva Kent and Surrey

Services to the Industry Award, sponsored by Buses Magazine
Mark Fowles – Nottingham City Transport

26 November 2019

• Industry calls on next government to put sector at heart of economic and trade policies, and agree an ambitious Brexit deal to deliver on UK’s green growth ambitions.
• New figures show tariffs would decimate UK manufacturing, with 1.5 million vehicles lost by 2024 at a cost of £42.7 billion.
• UK Automotive can lead in global green mobility revolution but needs collaboration to drive progress, prosperity and jobs.
• Industry launches ’key priorities for a new government’ at 103rd Annual Dinner to secure sector’s future success and competitiveness. 1

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) has this evening urged all parties to put UK Automotive at the heart of their economic and trade policies. Setting out the industry’s priorities for a new government, the trade body called for an ambitious, world-beating Brexit trade deal to maintain the sector’s competitiveness and ability to deliver innovation, productivity and prosperity for Britain.

Speaking at the 103rd SMMT Annual Dinner in London, SMMT President George Gillespie outlined the industry’s vision for a better, safer and cleaner future, saying,

The automotive sector is going through a period of unprecedented change and we must not let the pressure of Brexit deflect from our focus on a coherent national industrial strategy. Collaboration between industry and government must be stronger than ever… We want to work closely with the next government, as we have in the past; united in a common purpose to keep UK Automotive a global player that drives employment, creates wealth and gives all of us pride in what we can do here.

He spoke as SMMT revealed new figures showing the devastating impact of Brexit without an ambitious trade deal. Independent research commissioned by the trade body shows WTO tariffs on imported components and exported vehicles would add more than £3.2 billion a year to UK automotive manufacturing costs.2 Such a colossal increase – equivalent to almost 90% of the sector’s annual spend on R&D – could not be absorbed, forcing prices to rise and global demand to shrink. At a time when additional investment in ever safer, cleaner and more intelligent mobility technology is essential, this would be a tragic waste.

The analysis estimates the impact of such tariffs could result in the cumulative loss of more than 1.5 million units from UK production volumes over the next five years, worth some £42.7 billion at factory gate prices. Under this scenario, by 2024, falling demand and model reallocation to more competitive and welcoming production locations would see annual output falling to just 1 million vehicles per year.

Automotive is one of the UK’s most valuable economic assets, exporting more goods than any other sector to over 160 countries worldwide. The manufacturing sector is directly responsible for putting food on the tables of 168,000 British workers and their families. The sector provides high value, highly skilled jobs right across the country, with wages typically 21% higher than the UK average.

In addition, with its annual economic contribution of £18.6 billion, the sector contributes enough to the economy to pay for the salaries of England’s NHS nurses twice over, or the entire NHS spend on medicines.3 Leaving the EU without an ambitious deal that eliminates tariffs, delivers frictionless trade, maintains regulatory alignment and secures access to talent from across the globe would jeopardise this contribution, causing serious economic damage and putting thousands of jobs and progress at risk.

Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, said,

UK Automotive’s needs are clear: frictionless trade free of tariffs, with regulatory alignment and continued access to talent. Detailed trade negotiations have yet to begin. They will be complex and they will take time. But a close trading relationship is essential to unlock investment so we can deliver our goals: cleaner air, zero carbon emissions, and the ability to go on building our products and marketing them globally.

Rather than producing two million cars a year by 2020, a no trade deal, WTO tariff worst case scenario could see us making just a million. The next government must deliver the ambition, the competitive business environment and the commitment needed to keep automotive in Britain.

Over the past decade, thanks to massive investment and collaboration with governments through a comprehensive industrial strategy, UK Automotive has undergone tremendous growth. It is globally competitive and a hotbed of innovation, providing the platform from which the industry can develop, manufacture and deploy electrified, connected and autonomous vehicles – with a £62 billion economic opportunity up for grabs if it succeeds.4

To realise this potential, however, sustained government support will be vital, starting with an ambitious Brexit deal, and including a long-term commitment to secure giga-scale battery manufacturing investment and to bolster the market for ultra low and zero emission vehicles through substantial incentives and infrastructure spending.
Notes to editors

1. SMMT UK Automotive Priorities for new government.
2. Independent analysis conducted by AutoAnalysis for SMMT based on 2018 production volumes.
3. Based on ONS and NHS data. Average nurse’s weekly wage of £627.30 x 52 weeks. NHS workforce statistics show 287,458 nurses working in England in August 2019. The Kings Fund report £17.4 billion spent on medicine in 2017
4. SMMT Report 2019 – CAVs: The Global Race to Market

27 November 2019

DAF has introduced its first CF Electric truck with a 6×2 rigid chassis.

Ideal for refuse collection, the first examples of the new model will be field-tested in the Netherlands later this year by the Dutch public waste disposal firms HVC and ROVA.

The city of Rotterdam and Cure will follow suit early in 2020 with a fully electric 6×2 garbage truck fitted with a loader crane.

All of these vehicles are equipped with a VDL E-Power driveline. The fully electric superstructure is supplied by VDL Translift.

DAF has been trialling its CF Electric models in 4×2 guise with various Dutch operators since the end of 2018, testing how the models perform in real-world conditions.

27 November 2019

A major agricultural supplier with 32 country stores has turned to Microlise for its vehicle telematics.

Carrs Billington, which operates a 60-strong fleet, will deploy a Microlise solution including fleet performance and journey management products in an effort to increase fuel efficiency, reduce mileage run and support improved driver performance.

The Journey Management product will allow Carrs Billington to understand the location of its fleet versus the plan in real time. Data will also highlight performance against schedule and routes, alerting the team to any potential missed time-slots before they’ve happened, to support proactive customer communication.

Meanwhile, driver performance monitoring will support drivers and deliver increased efficiencies across fuel usage as well as vehicle wear and tear.

Phil Rothera, National Distribution Manager at Carrs Billington Operations, said, “We have an ambitious target to deliver increased fuel efficiencies and to support driver performance. When we realise these improvements, we will continue with our planned programme of investment to provide additional technological support to our drivers in the field.”