Ogilvie Daily Rental wins at the 2018 Van Awards

Ogilvie Fleet’s new standalone rental division, Ogilvie Rental, has won its first industry award less than 12 months after being launched.

The company won the Best Daily Van Rental Award at the 2018 Van Awards, which celebrated the very best light commercial vehicles and service providers with a networking lunch, held at Twickenham Stadium, London. 

Judged by an expert panel from sister publications Van Fleet World and Vans A2Z, the 18 categories sought to recognise innovative new products and services which cut costs, streamline operations and contribute to safer, more fuel-efficient fleets.

Ogilvie Fleet’s short-term hire business has been transformed since 2013 into a £4.5 million a year operation - up around 27% on the previous 12 months - with an expectation that turnover will top £5 million in 2018.

The significant growth in business - rental days increased by around 30% over 12 months to 193,883 in 2016/17 from 147,655 in 2015/16 - is due to Ogilvie Fleet maximising short-term hires with existing contract hire and leasing company customers while also winning business in the wider marketplace. In 2017/18 Ogilvie Fleet is on target to record 240,000 rental days and is averaging 19,000 rental days per month.

That growth led to the launch in 2017 of Ogilvie Rental accompanied by a dedicated website - www.ogilvie-rental.co.uk.

World Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procure

As the furore of the VW emissions scandal begins to die down, the fleet industry is now faced with WLTP (World harmonised Light vehicle Test Procedure) which has been developed to provide ‘real-world’ emissions and fuel economy data.

The new WLTP figures provided by manufacturers in mid 2018 are only the beginning. From September 2019, all new vehicles must pass RDE (Real Driving Emissions) tests. RDE tests require a vehicle to be driven on the open road, with equipment strapped to the rear of the vehicle to measure everything that comes out of the exhaust. Critics may argue that RDE tests aren’t perfect but one can hope that they are closer to real world driving conditions.

The change in testing doesn’t stop with RDE (often called RDE1) because January 2020 sees the introduction of RDE2 testing for all newly designed vehicles. The same RDE2 test will also be applied to all vehicles sold from January 2021.

Diesel is particularly vulnerable with the 4% company car tax surcharge and with new tests as manufacturers aim to reduce pollutants such as Nitrogen Oxides (NOx). At the time of writing, April 2018, there are no RDE2 compliant diesel vehicles but interest for these vehicles is growing – the HMRC has confirmed that when they are available, they will not attract the current diesel supplement for company car drivers.

For more details on company car taxation visit our Tax Guide pages.

Spring Statement 2018

Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond’s first Spring Statement today (Tuesday, March 13) was an update on the health of the UK economy and the state of the government’s finances, rather than laying out any major new tax or spending announcements.

However, Mr Hammond did mention towards the end of the Statement that he would “help the great British white van driver go green” by holding a consultation on reduced Vehicle Excise Duty rates for the “cleanest vans”. However, the consultation document was not among those published immediately by HM Treasury at the conclusion of the Statement.

Mr Hammond, in a 26-minute statement to MPs in the House of Commons gave an update on the overall health of the economy and the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecasts; an update on progress since last November’s Budget; and invited businesses and the public to give their views on a wide range of measures the government was considering.

Ogilvie support Belfast Giants in Cup winning season

Like the Belfast Giants, Ogilvie Fleet have had a great 2017/18 season with taking 2 superb awards at the BusinessCar Awards late 2017 – the awards of ‘Leasing Company of the Year – Up to 25,000 vehicles’ and ‘Customer Service Award’ are big achievements for the entire team throughout GB and N.Ireland. 

The Belfast Giants also brought home some fine silverware by winning the Challenge Cup in early 2018.  Paul Griffiths, Head of Sales in N.Ireland commented “we have had great growth with existing and new clients in our local market as our contract hire model is unique and very beneficial to local fleets.  We love having our client nights at the Belfast Giants, it’s a great event to take clients with their families and hear all the kids yelling ‘let’s Go Giants’, and very loudly”!  “We are delighted with our own awards and even more pleased for the guys at the Giants, so much so we will continue our partnership into the 2017/18 season again”.

Click here to return to the Northern Ireland pages.

Brandon Benedict and Kevin Raine from the Belfast Giants with Paul Griffiths from Ogilvie Fleet.

Eighth successive ExpertEye award for Ogilvie Fleet

Fleet decision-makers have voted Ogilvie Fleet the UK’s top vehicle leasing and fleet management company for service to customers in the 2018 Experteye awards. 

Topping the category which recognises service to fleet operators with more than 250 vehicles further extends the contract hire and fleet management specialist’s record of winning an Experteye award to an unprecedented eighth year in succession, and the third year in a row for customer service.

Fast-growing Ogilvie Fleet has, in recent years, seen the number of company cars and vans on its books under lease and fleet management arrangements expand to 16,500. In the past 12 months the company has secured more than 60 new customers, with industry-leading customer service and cutting-edge IT instrumental in underpinning that growth.

The latest triumph further builds on Ogilvie Fleet’s six Experteye customer service awards and a customer innovation award won in the previous seven years, thus further underlining the company’s leadership of the UK contract hire and leasing industry in putting clients first.

The Experteye awards cover nine different fleet and automotive categories in total. Ogilvie Fleet’s Fleeteye CSI honour is based on results obtained throughout 2017 from Experteye’s market-leading post-sale customer satisfaction survey, drawn from a subscriber base of top leasing companies in the UK.