Changes to the current MOT testing requirements for vans could be introduced over the next few years, following the announcement by the government of a review of all vehicle testing requirements.

One of the government’s main concerns is that low-mileage, well-maintained cars are tested too often, while high-mileage vans are tested too little, relative to the mileage they cover.

The current rules require all Class 4 and Class 7 (vans between 3t and 3.5t) vehicles to be tested annually after they reach three years old. However, high-mileage vans can have annual mileages in excess of 50,000 miles; such a van will have covered more than 150,000 miles by the time its first MOT test comes round. Until that time, there are no rules in place to ensure that such vehicles are monitored for safety issues.

I don’t believe there are inherent safety risks in high mileage vans, as long as they are properly maintained. However, it’s clear that many vans are not being properly maintained – unpublished DVLA figures obtained by Fleet News show that the first-time MOT failure rate for Class 7 vans (vans with a gross weight of between 3,000kg and 3,500kg)  reached 50% in the 2009/10 financial year*. This does seem to suggest that some van operators are not taking enough care with maintenance.

The obvious solution to this problem would be to introduce annual MOT testing from new for Class 7 vehicles. This would be in line with the regulations for lorries, buses and coaches. Whether this would help reduce accident numbers – the ultimate goal of MOT testing – is another question.

*Source – Fleet News

Shell has just launched two new fuels to replace its standard (regular) pump fuels. Shell FuelSave Unleaded and FuelSave Diesel contain new ingredients that promise to provide fuel savings of 1 litre per 50 litre fill up (the marketing is aimed at family car drivers!).

The new fuels have been in development for five years and will replace regular unleaded, regular diesel and Diesel Extra at all Shell filling stations in the UK. Pricing will be exactly the same as the old fuels. This isn’t a premium fuel – the V-Power lineup will continue unchanged – it’s a normal fuel for normal drivers to use in all types of petrol and diesel vehicles.

Obviously the diesel fuel will be most relevant to van drivers, but for anyone who is interested, here is the technical story behind the new fuels.

FuelSave Diesel

Diesel engines are around 30% efficient – that is, 30% of the energy created by burning the fuel is used to drive the vehicle forwards. The rest is wasted in the form of heat, noise and so on.

Shell’s scientists identified irregular injector spray and slow ignition as two key factors affecting diesel engine efficiency. Shell’s existing diesel already contained detergents to help prevent dirty injectors (and hence irregular spray patterns) but what is new in FuelSave Diesel is an “Efficiency Improver” that increases the speed of fuel ignition. Shell claims that this improves combustion efficiency and helps reduce fuel consumption.

FuelSave Unleaded

As anyone who has driven both petrol and diesel-engined vehicles in winter will know, the heaters in petrol-engined vehicles always warm up faster than those in diesels. The reason for this is that petrol engines are even more inefficient than diesels – just 20%-25% of the energy created when the petrol is combusted gets turned into forward motion – petrol engines get hotter, faster, than diesels.

When it came to improving the efficiency of petrol engines, Shell’s scientists identified a different area to target – lubrication. They found that the top of the cylinder and the piston heads were often inconsistently coated with oil – resulting in greater friction. The solution they came up with was focused on improving the lubrication of the piston rings. The new unleaded formula contains a lubrication agent that coats the top of the pistons when fuel is injected into the cylinders, reducing friction and thus improving combustion efficiency.

Does It Work?

Shell has had extensive independent testing done on its new FuelSave fuels and claims that they work from the first tankfull, saving up to 1 litre of fuel per 50 litre fill. I’m going to try and test this out for myself with my Transit but it could be difficult to work out a way of doing it scientifically enough – I don’t have an accurate way of measuring fuel used (other than by brimming the tank) or the ability to drain the tank of one fuel and refill it with another. If I do manage to reach any conclusions, you can be sure I’ll post them here.

In the meantime, if you try FuelSave Diesel or Unleaded and reach any conclusions of your own, leave a comment below – I’d be really interested to hear from you. Remember that if you fill up at a Shell station from Wednesday 21st July, you’ll be filling up with FuelSave (unless you use V-Power).

Shell is also running a competition for drivers to win a year’s supply of FuelSave fuel – click here for more details.

From today, UK and Irish drivers who are banned from driving in each others’ countries will also be banned from driving in their home countries. For example, a UK driver who receives a ban in Ireland will now also be banned from driving in the UK.

The move is the first stage of a deal to implement the terms of the 1998 European Convention on Driving Disqualifications and should, in theory, eventually extend across the EU. I suspect that might take quite a few more years…

Source: Simple Motoring

It seems that Halfords is currently running a 5% discount code for online purchases.

The code is AFF5APR and it is valid until 16th June 2009.

The discount offer applies to almost all products, except the usual suspects – sat nav, alloys, mp3/iPod and gift vouchers.

Remember, it’s only valid on online purchases made before 16/06/2009 – so if you are planning a purchase, check out Halfords’ prices now to see if you can save money.

Driving in the snow is not something that most of us have much experience at.

Here are a few tips for anyone renting a van in the next few days who may need to drive in the snow:

• Take it easy – steer, accelerate and brake much more gently and slowly than usual
• You may need up to 10 times your normal braking distance to come to a safe halt
• Drive in the lowest gear possible – if you set off in 1st gear, shift up to 2nd as soon as you are moving
• If you start to skid, take your foot off the brake/accelerator and steer gently into the skid – don’t brake or accelerate hard to try and drive out of it
• Make sure you have plenty of fuel, warm clothes and perhaps a drink and sugary snack with you. You may get stuck, break down or have to take a long diversion and the cold is your enemy in these cases.
• Remember that if you break down you should get out of your vehicle to wait for assistance – you will need a warm coat.
• Make sure all of your windows are cleared of condensation, ice and snow before you set off. Allow plenty of time so you won’t feel tempted to try and rush.
• Make sure your windscreen washer bottle if full and has plenty of anti-freeze in it
• The compacted snow in other vehicle’s tyre tracks is more likely to be icy – fresh snow often gives better grip
• Put a shovel in your van if you have one – it will enable you to clear the snow from around your wheels if you get stuck.

Take care out there – most collisions are preventable and are the result of driving errors, even in this bad weather.

For the latest traffic information, visit the Highways Agency Traffic Information website.

When the current two-part photocard driving licenses were introduced in 1998, one of the little-publicised changes was that the photocard itself expires after 10 years.

Your driving license remains valid until you are 70 – as before – but the photocard itself needs renewing. Presumably this is so that the photograph keeps pace with changes to your appearance over the years!

I have to admit that I only realised this myself recently and wasn’t sure whether I would get a reminder from the DVLA nearer the time.

Thanks to this excellent post on the Avis blog, I now know the answer – reminders are being sent out.

Apparently, the DVLA have been sending out reminders since May 2008 – but although you are legally required to renew your license, there is a £17.50 fee to do so with a potential £1,000 fine for non-compliance.

Interestingly, Avis say that they will still hire to you if your photocard has expired but your license is still valid – but I am not sure whether that would be the case with all hire companies, so it is probably as well to ensure that your photocard is renewed on time.

Sarah Kennedy had a flash of genius when she coined the phrase ‘white van man’ back in 1997.

There’s a white van man in all of us and, with tongue firmly in cheek, GQ editor Dylan Jones captured the spirit of the white van in this in a piece for the Daily Mail last weekend.

It made me smile, anyway…

It seems that Essex police isn’t the only police force wrestling with costly misfuelling problems – breakdowns caused by drivers filling up vehicles with the wrong type of fuel.

Avon & Somerset Police has had to fork out nearly £24,000 over the last three years as a result of drivers filling up diesels vehicles with petrol and vice versa.

The bad news is that the problem is inevitable – with drivers often switching vehicles. The good news is that major manufacturers such as Ford are starting to factory-fit misfuelling prevention devices to prevent diesels being filled with petrol.

Putting petrol into diesel vehicles is the most common type of misfuel due to petrol nozzles being slightly smaller than diesel nozzles. Filling a petrol vehicle with diesel is harder as the nozzle will not fit into the filler neck as easily as normal. This alerts most drivers to their mistake before they start fuelling.

Just in case you aren’t familiar with the problem, misfuelling a diesel vehicle with petrol can cause costly damage to the engine if the vehicle is started. At the very least, the vehicle will have to have its fuel system drained – a time-consuming and hence costly procedure.

Click here for more information on misfuelling.

One of the easiest ways to improve fuel consumption and reduce wear and tear on your vehicle’s drivetrain is by timing gear changes correctly.

Ford are obviously aware of this and are now taking active steps to help drivers change gear better.

From 2009, all Ford Econetic model cars (Fiesta, Focus and Mondeo) will have a gear change indicator on their instrument consoles. The same indicator will also be fitted to Transit and Transit Connect vans.

The indicator consists of a light that illuminates when it’s time to change up to the next gear. The idea is that many drivers over-rev needlessly and without realising it, causing wear and wasting lots of fuel.

By timing up-changes correctly, significant cost savings can be achieved.

According to Ford, the system “continuously monitors data from the vehicle including engine speed, road speed, gear selected and throttle position to calculate optimum gear changes.”

In other words, it’s not just some dumb light that flashes automatically when engine revs reach a certain level. Sounds good to me – I will certainly look forward to trying one in practice and seeing how well it works.

It’s Christmas – it must be time for some slightly less serious press releases.

This contribution from the RAC reveals its all-time strangest call outs – including steamy windows (apparently 31% of patrols have arrived at a breakdown to find an ‘amorous couple’ in the car), rats in the dashboard and hungry alligators…

RAC Top Ten most unusual call-outs

1. A patrol called out to a car that wouldn’t start discovered the culprits; a family of rats living in the fuse box, who had chewed through all the wires.

2. One RAC member was mystified as to why they couldn’t unlock their car. On arrival, the patrol had to break it gently that they had the wrong car!

3. One member was trying to protect rather more than his car – he had broken down at the side of the road with over £80,000 in cash in his boot!

4. A patrol had to make it snappy when a van taking an alligator to a zoo broke down. Another speedy patrol helped restart a transporter taking a cheetah to a zoo before it was dinner time!

5. A hapless groom nearly didn’t marry his bride when he locked the wedding rings in his car – thankfully the RAC patrol saved the day just moments before the ceremony.

6. A £30,000 violin had to be rescued by a RAC patrol from a jammed seatbelt so that it’s musical maestro owner could get to a concert in time.

7. A kitten being driven to his new home panicked on arrival and escaped into the dashboard of the vehicle. An RAC patrol undertook the rescue, dismantling the entire dashboard, and recovering the kitten safely. Similar callouts have involved snakes, mice and hamsters.

8. On opening the back of a broken down van, a patrol was startled by 17 pairs of eyes staring back at him belonging to a cast of falcons.

9. One RAC patrol rescued a referee on his way to a crucial league football match, just hours before the game was due to kick off.

10. An RAC patrol rescued a police car, stuck up to its windows in mud having chased a runaway criminal across a ploughed field.

Overall, almost four in ten (39%) patrols have helped a motorist get to a life-changing event such as a wedding on time and one even reported helping to deliver a baby.

RAC patrol of the year Iain Vale commented: “Our patrols respond to around 2.7 million roadside assistance call-outs every year and this survey reveals the extend of the very odd and unusual nature of what sometimes awaits us.

“Whether it’s meeting members who keep their dogs ashes in an urn in the car, calls asking whether they can extend breakdown cover to their electric wheelchairs or a new kitten that’s panicked and hidden in the dashboard, RAC patrols aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty and really can be relied on to come to the rescue of members.”