Ellesmere Port Vauxhall Plant Saved by GM!

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You might remember recently that Vauxhall’s Ellesmere Port has been in trouble and on uncertain rocky ground. Well the plant has now been saved by a ground breaking ’round the clock’ flexibility deal which in turn will secure thousands of jobs (however, at the expense of less competitive Germans).

The lucky plant that builds the best selling Astra also scored a deal that will make them thrive and expand, see major jobs and a big production boost! The cards seem to deal a lot different than a few months ago, that’s for sure.

Vauxhall workers voted massively in favour of the new pay conditions deal that clears the way for a great new investment.

Read more into the story here:

How to Save Money with Motor Trade Discounts

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Whether you are running a car dealership or a mechanic workshop on a full or part time basis, you will want to enjoy the benefits of motor trade discounts when it comes to your insurance policy.

Many businesses these days have stopped paying their policies because they simply can’t afford it as businesses close their doors around them, but things are improving daily and stopping your policy is not an option as it can cost you a lot of money in the long run.

Thinking ahead you want to ensure your business has the best cover available to keep your business afloat should an accident occur but at the same time you don’t want to pay a large sum of money for it. This can be done if you know where to look.

Start with online quotes, these quotes are often more affordable than going through the broker. In a majority of cases you remove the middleman and go directly to the company, which can save you a lot of money. Always ensure the company you are getting a quote from specialise in your industry, this way you know you will get the best level of cover for the lowest price.

 

Always get a minimum of three quotes, this is an essential step. It enables you to compare the quotes and see which ones offer the best level of protection. You will probably find you will need to make amendments before they completely satisfy your business needs.

 

Be careful because often online quotes offer the bare minimum when it comes to cover, it may offer you a very low public liability or it may be omitted completely. You will need to thoroughly review the quotes before making any choices. Don’t go straight for the cheapest one, often cheaper isn’t always better, you may find the second quote which costs slightly more offers you more benefits.

 

When it comes to the section for your road risks cover, you will want to take some serious consideration as to which staff members you afford this to. You may have a staff member who has been with you for years, they are loyal and trustworthy except they don’t have a clean driving license. At the same time you may have an employee who only joined a few months ago, they have proven themselves loyal and trustworthy, they have a clean driving license and a personal no claims against their name. Choosing the shorter serving staff member will save you money when it comes to your road risks cover.

 

There are lots of motor trade discounts available when it comes to insurance, take your time review the policy, make your changes and carefully select your drivers to get the most amounts of benefits for the lowest possible price.

How Can Google’s ‘Driverless Cars’ Change Motoring?

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Following an article we posted in February about Driverless cars being licensed in Nevada there has been a lot of discussion about Google’s development and the impact this would have on how we see motoring.

 

Safer Roads

According to the World Health Organisation, more than 1.2 million people will not die in road accidents due to the safety of driverless drivers. 60% of fatal crashes in America are down to distracted driving, weaving out of lanes and driving while intoxicated, the use of an automated driver would cancel out these problems:

“Your automated car isn’t sitting around getting distracted, making a phone call, looking at something it shouldn’t be looking at or simply not keeping track of things,”

 

Says editor of Marketing Land who took a 2 min ride in Google’s robot car at a convention last year.

Google’s prototype can process more information faster than a human driver,

“When the car is on self-driving mode, it doesn’t speed, it doesn’t cut you off, it doesn’t tailgate.”

“It’s not looking down to change the radio and looking up and noticing all the cars have stopped.”

More Timely and Productive

Lynne Irwin, a director and engineer for Cornell University’s Local Roads Program says “If you truly trust the intelligence of the vehicle, then you get in the vehicle and you do our work while you’re travelling”, this would make the ride and commute a lot more productive.

 Less Cluttered But More Cars

Driverless cars could work it’s way to groups of people that previously wouldn’t be able to own a car, this would mean a boost in the amount of vehicles on the road however it would not mean more traffic jams. Traffic normally slows as the volume of cars on a road increases, due to drivers slowing their speed to accommodate the narrowed distance from said road.

But these automated vehicles which are able to communicate with each other could in theory drive so close that their bumpers could practically be touching. Even at high speed.

 

Personal – Like A Train Carriage

More and more travellers book lengthier journeys if they know that they can relax and rest. This is hopefully a similar prospect for the driverless car.

Thoughts?

A common thought when reading up about this is that it’s simply an over-dreamed futuristic concept, but this is being taken very seriously. Have a think about how far  satellite navigation technology has travelled and how much we rely on it since it became commercially available. Same for the likes of Google Maps. I’d safely put Google in charge of knowing the world’s roads.

 

Save Money with Fleet Insurance

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Fleet insurance can offer any business with five or more company vehicles a choice of fantastic benefits from affordable premiums to simplicity and ease.

The biggest advantage is it doesn’t matter what vehicles you have, maybe you have a combination of vans, trucks, cars and motorcycles. The convenience of combining them all into one handy policy can make a huge difference to your daily operations and risks and your profit margin.

If you were to cover each vehicle individually, you will end up paying five or more separate premiums, which will also cost you more money. Think of the ability to pay one premium for all your vehicles, you can add or remove vehicles as and when you wish and the price will remain affordable. It will cost you a lot less than if you were to cover each one separately.

Then think of the convenience, you are already saving money which is probably a huge convenience to you and now you can help whoever pays your bills too. There will be no errors or forgetting to pay a premium one month, the bookkeeper will not have to try and manage a choice of premiums all due on different dates, they will have one premium to pay and that’s it. This will save a lot of time and energy and the bookkeeper can use their time productively to handle other jobs.

 

When it comes to claiming it doesn’t get any easier either. Imagine having ten vehicles and each is covered separately or some on one policy and some on another. Should the vehicle be involved in an accident it can take hours to determine which company it’s covered by and then phone to claim. With this cover you have one phone number to phone, there is no confusion, so you know that you have spread up the process and the repairs or replacement can be carried out as quickly as possible to get the vehicle back on the road.

 

Now when you look at all the benefits it makes perfect sense. Of course you need to ensure you choose the right broker, someone that has a good reputable and is reliable. When you choose fleet insurance you want to ensure you get the best customer service, your claims are dealt with in an efficient manner and you can get the vehicle back on the road and making money again as soon as possible.

Motor Trade Insurance – Do I Really Need It?

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This is a question asked by many businesses in the industry, probably because they haven’t needed to claim for years yet pay their premium every year. The answer is yes, you do need motor trade insurance and this is why.

Firstly having a policy in place can save you a fortune in the long run whether it’s a staff member or customer injuring themselves or you having an accident in a customer vehicle.

In your line of business there are a lot of things to take into consideration. Your building is important and needs to be covered against fire, storm damage and theft. Should you building be destroyed in a fire you need to get repairs underway as soon as possible, so you can get back to work.

Then there is all your tools and expensive equipment, should they get stolen it can cost a small fortune to replace them. There is expensive diagnostic equipment plus the general day to day tools that you need in order to work on vehicles, you cannot afford for these to be stolen. The right cover will enable you to replace these tools quickly and easily without emptying out your pockets.

You have customers visiting your  property regularly, every time they step through the door it’s a risk.  All you need is a customer to injure themselves while visiting your property to leave you with a financially devastating claim against you, which you are responsible for.

There are your staff members, from the time you hire your first employee you legally have to have employer’s liability cover in place, this is essential to both you and your staff members wellbeing especially when they are injured on the job and unable to work.

The next topic is the dreaded one of driving customer vehicles. Can you imagine having an accident in a customer’s vehicle without insurance? The thought is sickening and you can just imagine what it would do to your finances. Road risk cover is an essential part of your business, it covers you and your chosen drivers to drive customer vehicles and should an accident occur you can have the vehicle repaired or replaced quickly without leaving too bad a taste in the customer’s mouth.

When you look at all the advantages that motor trade insurance has to offer your business and how much money you can save in the long run should something happen, it’s easy to see that this is something you have to have in place.