Businesses Forced To Reduce Their Van Fleets Again After Another Petrol Price Increase
Being forced to heavily reevaluate their business models is something that UK and American companies are accustomed to, after the price of petrol shot up last year. Many who relied on large fleets of vans to transport goods all over the country were forced to slash employee pay and take a number of their vehicles off the roads.
It was avouched this month that many businesses could be in for a second pounding as petrol prices are set to take another upward spike. This flux in prices is causing many companies a large amount of grief as they cannot accurately plan their profits and losses. “Each time we plan out our business for that quarter, petrol prices are put up and our costings go out of the window” says Barry Hemstone, MD of RDA Foods. Many business experts have predicted that 2009 will see similar levels of transport-based companies shut down as witnessed last year, which was around 15%.
For companies that rely so heavy on petrol prices to turn over a profit, the news of another rise has not been well received. “We cannot survive much longer” claims Judith Grey, MD of UK-based company Grey Kitchens. Our customers expect their furniture to be delivered to them, which is something that is becoming financially unviable for us now. A number of similar companies are turning to cheap van leasing to try an reduce their outgoings. This is because van leasing enables businesses to not buy their vans outright and so this is a useful option if cash-flow is poor. Believe it or not Citroen van leasing has come out on top this year in terms of popularity, largely due to the high miles per gallon figures they offer. Ford van leasing is also up their with the most popular choices as their reliability is well respected in many industries.
