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As we know many local authorities have questioned the effectiveness of speed cameras with some switching them off completely as they found them just too expensive to maintain. But the presence of speed cameras, whether working or not, are considered to be braking ‘black spots’.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

A study carried out by driver data firm, Wunelli found that hard braking was on average 6 times more likely to occur just before a speed camera with some sites up to 11 times more likely. The report raises concerns that speed cameras actually encourage poor driver behaviour with drivers braking hard within 50 meters of a camera then speeding up immediately after.

The conclusions were reached after analysing data collected collected over a billion miles of motoring resulting in a top ten of speed camera braking black spots. The events were collected within 50 meters of each camera and between 50 and 100 meters in residential areas with 30, 40 and 50mph speed limits.

Founding director of Wunelli, Paul Stacey, explained that he wasn’t in favour of speeding and wasn’t opposed to speed cameras but the report questioned the value of speed cameras as safety tools. He went on to say, ‘They appear top encourage poor driving behaviour. After hard braking, drivers often speed up again.’

Looking at the top ten, number 1 on the list is on the M4 near to Boston Manor rail station, West London. They recorded 57 hard braking events within the 50 meter range, that is 11 times the average. In 2^nd place, again 11 times the norm, was a camera on Rochdale Road in Middleton, Greater Manchester. Followed by a camera on the A4146 Leighton Buzzard Road in Hemel Hempstead, Herts running at 8 times the average number of events.

The highest number of single hard-braking events was found at the camera on the A40 Western Avenue, Ruislip, North West London. Here drivers hit the brakes 261 times within 50 meters of the camera. The usual response came from the RAC Foundation pointing out that the law is the law and no-one should be exceeding the speed limit in the first place which would mean that drivers wouldn’t have to slow down at the sight of a speed camera. Really?

Well who’d have thought? The fact is that there must be a better way of controlling speed, someone needs to get their thinking cap on. By Graham Hill

The rules have always been pretty clear when it comes to claiming back business miles when an employee uses their own car. These days I see more cars being funded privately than through a business as a company car, often to avoid benefit in kind tax.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

As an employee claiming a mileage allowance, again it is very clear, you can claim up to 10,000 miles per annum at 45 pence per mile which is tax and NI free, beyond 10,000 miles you can claim 25 pence per mile, again tax and NI free. All fairly straight forward but what if the car is an electric car as the HMRC do not regard electricity as ‘fuel’.

Also what constitutes a business trip? With regard to the electricity question how does this also affect hybrids that run partly on electricity and partly on petrol? I have read various reports regarding electricity which, whilst already confusing, are further confused if the company provides charging points in the workplace and therefore provides free electricity.

Some companies are paying the full fuel allowance but could this be a problem waiting to explode when the Revenue decides that as electricity is provided at work the employee cannot claim the fuel allowance. At the moment the consensus is that as there is no rate set for electric vehicles that employees can only claim for the electricity that they provide themselves. Totally unfair.

I will keep you posted on this one but in the meantime the Revenue has provided some guidelines regarding business miles as follows, recently issued under HMRC 490 Employee Travel – a tax and NICS guide for employers:

• ‘Ordinary Commuting’ is specifically excluded from being considered a business journey. This is any travel between the employees home and a permanent workplace.
• An employee such as a service engineer, who travels between different clients throughout the day and who has no normal workplace, can treat all his journeys as business miles, including the first and last trip of each day to and from home.
• An employee who works for the same company at two different sites cannot treat as business mileage the journeys to or from either site and home. But any journeys between the two offices would be business miles.
• Travel from home to a depot where an employee picks up jobs or tools prior to setting out on appointments would be considered commuting – the depot would be a permanent workplace, even if the employee spent the rest of the day away from the site.
• If an employee leaves home and passes his permanent workplace, but does not stop, on the way to see a client then all the journey is business travel. If, however, he stops at his normal workplace for ‘substantive duties’, such as making a phone call, this would be treated as two journeys – a commute to his workplace, followed by a journey to the client, and only the latter would be classed as business miles.

So there you have it, up to date advice on claiming business mileage but still with many questions left unanswered such as stopping to do some shopping or drop the kids off at school on the way to a client, and so on. By Graham Hill

Did I mention that I won the Innovation of the Year Award at the Frontline Solutions sponsored Finance & Insurance Awards 2015? Well in case I didn’t mention it – I did! And very proud of it I am too. Earlier in the day at the conference, speakers spoke about the motor finance industry and the need for much more education, not just for those selling the finance products such as dealers, brokers, banks, building societies and others but also customers who stand no chance if the people selling the products don’t have a grasp of the way the finance functions.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

To add to the confusion salesmen, anxious to make a sale, end up emphasising benefits that often don’t exist and certainly avoid telling clients anything that may put them off. For example a bank won’t tell you that an unsecured personal loan puts you at greater risk than a secured personal loan.

If you don’t repay your £2,000 loan that is secured against your house and you end up in court it would be very extreme for the judge to throw you and your family out on the street and order the sale of your house with maybe north of £100,000 equity in it for the sake of a £2,000 debt.

On the other hand if the £2,000 was ‘unsecured’ a court order could be issued and you could end up handing over valued possessions such as your TV, computer, jewellery etc. I always say that unsecured means unsecured against nothing in particular. So whilst explaining the finance they kind of miss that bit out albeit that it may be in the small print.

Oh and it doesn’t stop there, they could still go for your house if you don’t have enough value in your possessions in order to pay the debt, known as a charging order. This will force you to pay the debt back if and when you sell your house which is basically what happens when you take out a secured loan that you cannot repay. And that is the tip of the iceberg.

Many retail car salesemen don’t understand how contract hire (better known as a lease) works. But neither do customers and even accountants often miss some of the massive advantages attached to car leasing. At the other extreme there are customers whom, having taken a car on a lease, suddenly become as expert as me! They simply tout around the market to find the cheapest deal but will it end up being the cheapest with so many opportunities to charge all sorts of ‘extras’ included in the contract?

The rates are often not fixed so between ordering the car and delivery you may find that the rates have increased by £30 per month as a result of a £1,000 increase in cost of the vehicle. There are also some ‘brokers’ who are not conforming to the new FCA rules, are not members of any trade association and possibly don’t have professional Indemnity Insurance or are just managing to survive and could be closed down before your car even gets delivered.

How will you deal with that situation? If he is shut down or goes bust what happens to the car you have on order? If the car was ordered by the broker the order will be cancelled and you could be back to square 1. See what I mean? There is more to education than just understanding the basic products.

That’s why I am in the midst of re-writing my best selling book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide and creating educational videos to make sure you understand the upsides, downsides and matters relating to vehicle finance. Watch this space for future announcements and products. By Graham Hill

The Finance & Insurance (F & I) Conference and Awards dinner took place at the very impressive Royal Armouries in Leeds on the 15th October. The conference, run by Frontline Solutions, was hugely successful with some great presentations topped off by a motivationally impressive Simon Weston, survivor of the Argentina conflict badly burned on the bombed HMS Sir Galahad.

Spencer Halil of Alphera kicked the day off following introductions by Frontline creator Andy Shuter and MD Martin Hill (no relation). He started with a very interesting presentation on the industry and started the ‘education’ ball rolling. At several points during the presentation education of those providing finance was brought into focus as was the education of consumers and SMEs.

This was followed by Adrian Dally of the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) who provided us with some very interesting statistics. In terms of new cars by far the most popular way of financing them in the consumer sector was now PCP (73%) followed by HP (21%) then leasing (4.5%) with personal loans lagging well behind on just 1.6%.

However, it was pointed out that whilst PCP is by far the most popular way to finance a car it had taken a while to catch on, as is happening with lease or personal contract hire (PCH). PCH more than doubled over the last year from 2% so the penny is starting to drop, especially when consumers and more to the point, dealers, start to grasp the product.

But again the education void was mentioned, something that the industry and various associations need to address. In the afternoon we had a very entertaining and informative presentation by Georg Bauer, the German vice president of Tesla Financial Services, Europe and APAC. Whoever said that German’s don’t have a sense of humour? He was very funny as well as providing an insight into the latest electric vehicle technology. Fascinating. Why are all other manufacturers lagging so far behind?

Finally, Simon Weston recalled what happened to him along with some harrowing pictures. At the time Wales were still in the Rugby World Cup whilst England had been knocked out so as a Welsh ex rugby player he had a dig at us at every opportunity – not laughing now are you Simon. He went on to explain what he was doing now to help other war victims and the massive amount of charity work he does now. What an amazing guy and more than worthy of the standing ovation he received at the end of his presentation.

The evening awards dinner was hosted by newsreader Louise Minchin, and a brilliant job she did too. The motor racing legend who is Nigel Mansell recalled many of his scary and happy moments after performing a magic trick. I hadn’t realised he is rumoured to have joined the magic circle! Finally came the awards which was the evening’s biggest shock. By the time the awards were being announced I have to say I was a little tipsy. So when people on my table pointed out that my company, GHA Finance was a finalist, according to the screen, in the category, Innovation Of The Year I was very surprised.

Then when it was announced by the lovely Louise that I had won, surprise turned to shock. I’d like to report on the rest of the evening but I have to say it was somewhat of a blur! But I would very much like to thank Andy, Martin and all the organisers for creating what is for me one of the best conferences, if not the best, of the year.

Also sincere thanks to the judging panel who awarded the prize and especially Luke Curtis and MotoNovo who sponsored the award! Thank you all so very much. Oh and I haven’t stopped, I have another app in development and I am in the middle of a re-write of my book Car Finance – A Simple Guide, available on Amazon. By Graham Hill

Did you know about the changes that have come about over the last few months at Companies House? It will now be easier for lenders to access your business data held by Companies House as it is now FREE for anyone to access under the new Government Corporate Transparency Rules which are part of the BIS Open Data Strategy.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

This means that anyone, including the general public, can access over 170 million records held by Companies House including such information as Registered Office, Current & Resigned Officers, Mortgage Charge Data, Previous Names Data, Insolvency Data, Document Images, Accounting Information and much more.

And in time more will be added. The new initiative also includes free access to developers who may wish to access information held at Companies House as part of a computerised assessment program.

Some may argue that little has changed as it only cost a quid to get your hands on any of this information in the past and it hasn’t exactly been widely publicised that the information is now free but more worrying is the path this is taking us.

How much more information will become available not only those who wish to use it for legitimate reasons but to those who wish to use it for less than legal reasons or for targeting. Worrying times in my opinion. By Graham Hill

It is very rare for me to run so low on fuel that I am forced to stop at a motorway service station to take on board some diesel but on those very rare occasions it is really irritating to find that the price they are charging is about 20p per litre more than my local Tesco – without the points!

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

So I applaud the latest Government initiative through the Department for Transport to pilot a motorway sign that forewarns drivers well in advance the cost per litre at the next three motorway service stations. This scheme is set to force down the cost of fuel on motorways as it introduces competition.

Knowing that petrol is 128.9 pence per litre at the next service station in 3 miles but only 125.9 at the following service station in 32 miles, provided you are not running on fumes, you would probably hold on till you reach the following services. The trial will start at the end of the year between 5 different services between Exeter and Bristol on the M5. A further 3 signs are planned to follow in 2016.

The trial followed research that found motorway services charging more than 15p per litre than other forecourts. The initiative was welcomed by Auto Express who had found large variances between motorway services, up to 10 pence per litre and the AA who have been calling for fuel price transparency on motorways for years.

If the trial is successful the Government will consider extending the scheme across the 2,300 miles of motorways in the UK. Let’s hope they do. By Graham Hill

Have you ever heard the expression ‘Real World’? It’s used about our royalty, ‘They don’t live in the real world’. When talking about wealthy people, they don’t know what it’s like to be in the real world. Dating men or women on dating sites, it’s not like dating in the real world.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

And so on and so forth, but what is the real world? And where is it? Who are its inhabitants? Just recently journalists and reporters have gone into meltdown over ‘real world’ testing when it comes to emissions from vehicles as well as the miles per gallon they return in test conditions compared to ‘the real world’.

For years What Car has been testing cars in ‘real world’ conditions to provide a more accurate MPG reading. But in my opinion it’s an absolute nonsense because the real world simply doesn’t exist except in the minds of each individual. If a driver was to drive through the middle of London, would that be extra urban conditions in the ‘real world’ or would it be more accurate to drive through the centre of Leeds.

And what time of day would be more accurate? 11.00 in the morning or 5.30 at the height of the rush hour? How would you measure urban or motorway driving. I would measure it on the motorway I use most, the M25 on which I consider it to be my birthday and Christmas combined if I keep moving for the whole of the trip.

OK I might agree that the testing conditions could be tweaked a little which may result in cars seen to be achieving a few miles to the gallon less than currently shown in the manufacturer’s handbooks. But what about CO2 emissions? Supposing we find that the readings have been out by a few grams per kilometre as a result of the changes to the tests to make them ‘real world’ tests?

The Government has set its tables for benefit in kind tax and road tax for the next few years so would drivers be hit with additional costs? Yes, they probably would because the Government can’t suddenly say that they will increase a banding from 99g/km of CO2’s to 109g/km because of miscalculations by car manufacturers.

The changes would affect motorists’ pockets because the Government has already established that they want to pull down CO2 emissions to the 99g/km level and ultimately to zero emissions. Speed, weather conditions, temperature and the driver of the car can all affect the fuel consumption and emissions so should we change the way cars are tested when there are so many variables?

Maybe the activists should be careful for what they wish for. The changes might just come back and bite them, you and other motorists on the bum! The fact is that manufacturers will still continue to try to find ways to improve the emissions of their cars, they are obliged to, irrespective of the way that cars are tested. By Graham Hill

Whilst I happily sit on the wall over the whole EU thing – should we be in or should we be out, there are certain things that they do that provide us with great benefits. One of these is standardisation. Safety issues sometimes require a group of people to get their heads together in order to agree a standard because clearly we can’t leave things to the individual manufacturers.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

Have I ever told you about the Ford Pinto back in the 1970’s? At the time it was the best selling compact car in the US. In fact there were 11.5 million of these cars on the road but they had a major fault. The fuel tank was mounted in the back of the car in a position where, if the car was shunted in the rear, the tank would explode. More than 500 people died as a result of the fuel tank exploding and bursting into flames with many more suffering severe burns.

This only came to light because one of the burn victims sued Ford. It then turned out that Ford engineers were fully aware of the danger posed by the fuel tank but company executives carried out a cost benefit analysis with shocking results. They decided that the benefits of fixing the problem in lives saved and injuries prevented were not worth the cost of $11 per car to fix the problem on all of the Pintos.

They calculated that if the tanks weren’t repaired there would be a further 180 deaths and 180 burn injuries. They then applied a cost of $200,000 per life and $67,000 per injury. They added to this the cost of repair and replacement of cars as a result of the tank explosions and they came up with a cost of $49.5 million but to make the cars safer at a cost of $11 per vehicle would cost $137.5 million so they chose not to repair all the cars already on the road.

When this came out in court the jury found against Ford and awarded the plaintiff $2.5 million in compensatory damages and $125 million in punitive damages (later reduced to $3.5 million). So my point is that if manufacturers were left to make their own decisions on safety I suspect that cars would be nowhere near as safe as they are now.

So on the plus side we can feel comfortable that when we get into any car across Europe we are protected by some very high standardised safety levels. God forbid we ever leave our safety in the hands of just the manufacturers. By Graham Hill

Having been in this industry for years there are few things that have caused me serious concern but the rapid growth in sophisticated car theft over the last few months is one of them. One leasing company won’t allow you to lease a Land Rover car without having a tracker fitted which can add quite a bit to the monthly rental.

Thinking of a change but unsure as to the best way to finance your car? Then you need a copy of my car finance book, Car Finance – A Simple Guide by Graham Hill. Click on the link below to buy the best car finance book on the market, available as a Kindle Book and Paper Back.

Thieves are even targeting vans now, not only for the money they can make on the van but also the goods or tools that are being carried around in the back. The latest high tech thefts are perpetrated by gangs using gadgets that reprogram the electronics controlling keyless entry and start systems.

There has been a lot of publicity around these thefts but few people know that the surge in thefts has come about as a result of a change in European legislation which countered anti-competitiveness by making it easier to obtain replacement keys and the ability to program them. Vehicles on the thieves radar are high end Audis, BMW’s Range Rovers and Ford Transit Vans.

Within hours of being stolen cars and vans are being exported in containers, either whole or in parts, abroad as far away as Africa. Manufacturers have been advised to look into this problem as a matter of urgency. Changes to the electronics have been called for as well as improved marking methods to identify stolen parts.

The warning came after BMW said that it had fixed a security flaw that allowed hackers to unlock the doors of up to 2.2 million Rolls-Royce, Mini and BMW vehicles. As a result the police have stepped up their anti theft operations. They launched Operation Endeavour which was a campaign against keyless car theft. Scotland Yard reported that they had made 84 arrests and an 800 strong team of officers from the Met, Kent, Essex, Hampshire, Surrey and Thames Valley seized 222 vehicles after monitoring 20 arterial roads.

In another operation a search at Felixstowe docks found 5 Range Rovers believed to have been stolen from Surrey, South Woodford and Islington in containers bound for Kenya. Hundreds of parts from a dozen BMW cars, stolen in East London, were headed for Cyprus. In order to hide the stolen parts they were stashed within a pile of motorbike parts.

The police believed that the car parts were to be forward shipped. The police and manufacturers are working on the problem but in the meantime the police are suggesting that drivers revert to 80’s technology by fixing highly visible steering and brake locks which may be enough to deter a crook from breaking in. From my point of view the law needs to be changed.

We allow people to sell the gadgets and others to buy freely online. The law only says that you must not use the equipment for illegal purposes. It should be illegal to sell or buy this equipment unless you are properly authorised to do so. Not to do this is ridiculous. By Graham Hill

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