Mondial and RAC go with Agresso.
Software specialists Agresso have won a £500,000 contract to supply the RAC with a new financial and business information system.

The integrated system will replace the RAC's current accounting packages. It will ultimately allow RAC suppliers and customers to gain access to information at any time of day using the internet, rather than having to rely on contacting people during office hours. The RAC will be phasing in its Agresso system from the start of next year.

And Mondial Assistance is spending £145,000 with Agresso to introduce new financial and logistics programmes. The aim is to replace Mondial's traditional accounting system with a programme which can be used as a pro-active business tool. The new system is due to go live on 1 January 2001.

Lift for London.
As the pressure grows on illegal parking in central London, Ceejay Systems of Alresford has delivered its fourteenth vehicle to the Drakes Group, one of the contractors tasked with removing illegally parked cars.

Like previous deliveries, it has a PM crane and attachments for lifting vehicles cleanly on to the back.

Chris Jones, managing director of Ceejay Systems, notes that his vehicles are getting some high-profile media coverage. "Two are reaching celebrity status," he says. "One was on the TV Watchdog programme and another featured in a double-page spread removing the Range Rover in which model Elle McPherson was travelling."

Recovery on show in Frankfurt.
Recovery vehicles and equipment were amongst the thousands of exhibits at the 58th International Commercial Vehicle Show held in Frankfurt last month. Whilst many of the vehicles on display are unlikely to reach UK shores in their current form, the trucks on display offer an insight into continental design and operation.

Family owned Austrian manufacturer Empl displayed a 30 tonne Bison heavy recovery vehicle on a 6x6 MAN 33.414 chassis. Empl exports to Germany and Hungary and develops its own hydraulics and winch control systems. Four storage modules are produced for the Bison in either steel or stainless steel.

A further example of the specialist company's versatility was seen in its mobile workshop vehicle on MAN Unimog L37. The vehicle displayed was destined for Turkey and included a wide range of tools and equipment to provide full workshop facilities on site.

On the DAF stand was a Jerr Dan heavy recovery vehicle with 55 tonne crane on a Kenworth T800B straight hood. The distinctive truck was destined for recovery operator Auto Assistant Nimoise.

First class vehicle transport was on show with Daimler-Chrysler company Kassbohrer. This two tier transporter offers the very best environment for quality marques (and presumably lots of Dmarks!) on a Mercedes Ecotrans 1840.

Strautmann displayed a slidebed on Mercedes Atego chassis that boasts a low height body and shallow approach angle.

Hartmann had three vehicles on show including Omars equipment. Its latest is its baby, the Bergestar designed for city centre and car park vehicle removal.

Tischer had the largest display of recovery vehicles at the Frankfurt show with a full range from light to heavy.

New Truk body option.
Coventry-based lighting specialists Truk UK has launched a new body option for its Arizona range of sepc lifts.

The Florida XL body provides additional storage capacity and is designed to fit the Low Approach, Lo Pro, and Swan Neck versions of the Arizona.

The front locker is now around 23 per cent larger than its predecessor and the door is also bigger. Combined with raising the floor by four inches, this makes lifting equipment in and out much easier, according to Truk.

The side locker doors lift upwards with the struts at the top to reduce the likelihood of damage and increase useable storage space.

Stainless steel is used on the bottom lips of all lockers and to protect the rear upper edges of the body.

The body floor is aluminium chequer plate and the vehicle boasts inset LED marker lamps and vertically mounted rear lights.

Truk UK has agreed a distribution deal for the Netherlands through Alco Mobiel Maatwerk. Alco managing director John Hofstede says: "I know Truk's products are selling very well in Germany and that they have a reputation for offering their customers very high quality products at very competitive prices. We are very pleased to be able to offer their equipment in the Netherlands." Alco will be introudcing Truk's heavy underlifts in the early part of next year to complement the spec lift and slideback ranges.

Miller sales down in the States.
Miller Industries, parent company of Boniface has recently released the results for its first quarter of its financial year.

Sales have fallen in most areas, with net sales dropping by $7.3million. Revenues in the towing and recovery equipment segment were down from $83million to $77.4million. The company says that lower sales are due to intense cost pressures on its customers including high fuel prices.

President and CEO of Miller Jeffrey I Badgley says: "With demand for our towing and recovery equipment continuing to be negatively impacted by the cost pressures facing our customers, we remain focused on careful cost control, and have succeeded in maintaining operating profitability in this segment.

"While conditions in our marketplace remain challenging, we are satisfied with the progress we have made in the first quarter."

Security rating shows ease of entry.
While recovery operators have tried and tested (unpublished) methods for getting into locked cars, a survey by Which? magazine on the ease of breaking in to 34 popular current models suggests there are some where your toolkit really won't be needed.

In a rating system which scored from 1 (worst) to 10 (best), five cars scored just 1 point - Citroen Xsara, Mazda 626, VW Golf, Saab 9-3 and Seat Arosa. The concern of Which? is the ease with which thieves can gain access - but recovery operators, too, often have to enter locked cars and the Which? report suggests that these models should provide no challenge at all.

And at the top of the scale the best score was just four points - out of 10, remember - for the VW Passatt, Toyota Avensis, Audi A3, Renault Megane, Vauxhall Vectra and Renault Espace.

Which? conducts its "break-in" tests using a skilled professional equipped with the same sorts of tools as car thieves use (presumably excluding the large brick for breaking door windows) - so the results should provide a fair indication of the ease of which you can gain access to a car.

Coming to a hard shoulder near you . . .?
What do Jaguars and Land Rovers built since 1998 have in common? No, it's not that they're expensive. It's that they rate worst for breakdowns among all cars built in the period.

At least that's what those involved in the annual study of car reliability conducted by the Consumers' Association say, as reported in Which? Among older cars (1992-94) Ford has the poorest breakdown performance, followed closely by Citroen. In what Which? describes as recent cars (1995-97), it's Land Rover at the bottom of the league again, followed closely by Renault.

Now, you're going to say that you haven't recovered that many Jaguars or Land Rovers - which includes the Discovery and Freelander - compared to some other makes. And of course you haven't, because these two makes have relatively small market shares.

Which? reckons that six per cent of cars up to two years old had a breakdown during the year (the same as in the previous year's survey). Against that figure, the breakdown rate for Land Rovers was around 18 per cent, and for Jaguar, 16 per cent. Not surprisingly the breakdown rate rises with age, and the average for recent cars (1995-97) was almost 13 per cent, while for older cars (1992-94) the figure was almost 24 per cent. These are figures which will tie in with recovery operators' experiences - you get called out to more old cars than new ones.

One of the conclusions drawn by Which? is that buying an expensive car is no guarantee that you're not going to need the services of a recovery operator. "Some new cars are still surprisingly likely to break down, and it's not the cheapest ones that are the worst culprits," says Which? Car research manager Liam McCormack. And with the claim by Which? that a quarter of Jaguars under two years old suffered a breakdown, you can see his point. On the other hand, not one Lexus owner in the Which? survey reported a breakdown - but then Japanese cars generally proved to have high levels of reliability, all achieving better than average breakdown rates of five per cent or less for the newest models (1998-2000).

Apart from Land Rover and Jaguar, other makes with a poorer than average breakdown performance amongst 1998-2000 cars included Audi (almost nine per cent) and Vauxhall (around seven per cent). Vauxhall's great rivals, Ford, scored a better than average five per cent.

The Which? survey looks not just at breakdowns but at reliability in general, and it is an indictment of production quality that over one-third of cars up to two years old needed to have components repaired or replaced. Land Rover comes off worst here too, with Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Seat and Vauxhall also performing badly. Cars built in the Far East did best - Hyundai, Nissan, Mazda, Subaru, Lexus and Honda.

One interesting comment made by Which? relates to rust, once a real killer on old (and some not-so-old) cars. Which? suggests that manufacturers seem to have cracked the rust problem and notes that even amongst older cars only three per cent were reported as suffering from rust. Which? suggests car structures should be sounder when it comes to jacking and lifting.

The Which? survey is an interesting snapshot of owners' views of their cars, and we all enjoy seeing who is being singled out for criticism. But there is one drawback. It isn't scientific. The survey covered 80,000 members of the Consumers' Association, and drew over 32,000 responses - which is a very high figure. But scientific surveys use random sampling, and with Which? there has to be the nagging suspicion that unhappy owners seize the survey as an opportunity to get back at manufacturers when they feel they have been let down.

In the section where respondents rate their cars, Skoda scores higher than BMW, Mercedes, Audi and Volvo among others - in fact it was rated fourth out of 34 makes - which does begin to make you wonder, even allowing for the fact that Skodas are now very good cars. It seems likely that most of the owners in the survey are just that - owners - and that high-mileage company-owned cars are under-represented.

And the cars you're least likely to find on the hard shoulder? According to Which? new Mazdas, Saabs and Subarus all had low breakdown rates - so don't plan to make your fortune by specialising in their recovery.

Progress coming on industry standards?
This month's meeting of industry representatives - expected to include AVRO, LARO, IVR, REMSA and RRRA - follows a presentation on minimum standards given last month by Jones-Venning Associates, an organisation with wide motor industry experience.

"We gave a presentation on how a set of minimum standards could be interpreted and applied without bureaucracy," Mike Venning, formerly with the AA, told Professional Recovery. Jones-Venning has for the last seven years managed and policed an approved caravan workshop scheme where a rigorous code of practice exists to maintain high standards. "We have implemented policies and procedures in the caravan industry and this can easily be scaled up to serve the recovery business."

Another former AA man with a long association with the recovery industry is working closely with Jones-Venning. Bill Diegutis sees the introduction of agreed minimum standards as an exciting opportunity for recovery operators. "Major customers want agreed standards across the board," he says. "If all operators met minimum standards the clubs would guarantee to use them exclusively. It would also mean that operators would have only one independent inspection, instead of being checked out by representatives of each of the clubs they work for."

He also believes it would strengthen the industry's position when it came to negotiating rates, but admits that many operators want to see rates rise before they commit to minimum standards. "My view is that they will have to fulfil their part of the bargain by implementing the standards before they will be able to get the rate," he says. But he is convinced that having a system of agreed standards in place would lead to a wider recognition of the professionalism of the industry, and with that would come better rates for those operators supporting them.

Bill Diegutis also reminds operators of the spectre of the OFT hovering in the background. The OFT has been critical of the motor trade in general, and has in the past talked of introducing minimum standards through the BSI. He argues that a standard agreed by the industry would be more relevant than any prepared by the BSI, and that the use of an outside organisation to police it - and to withdraw accreditation from companies which failed to maintain the agreed standards - would satisfy the OFT that the standards had teeth.

This month's meeting may just be the first hurdle. Speaking after last month's presentation by Jones-Venning, Chris Jones of Ceejay Systems, who represented REMSA, sounded a note of caution. "It was not conclusive. Most people are agreed on the idea but how it is progressed is open to discussion at this stage."

And Bill Diegutis recognises that securing agreement in a fragmented industry may not be easy. "We would like to see these main bodies form an industry-wide body which could then own the standards, check that they're working and feed through changes. There's a lot of skill out there. The problem is bringing people together."

Last month's meeting was hosted by Motor Trade Software who have experience in securing industry-wide co-operation through the adoption of their Turbo Dispatch system.

IVR annual dinner.
The annual dinner and AGM of the Institute of Vehicle Recovery takes place at the Warwick Hilton on 17 March 2001.

Priority booking forms are being issued to previous guests for what is one of the major events in the recovery calendar.

The event will include the new award for Recovery of the Year which is running in association with Professional Recovery and also the Green Flag-sponsored award for the recovery person of the year. This year's winner of the latter award Barbara Camm said: "I feel very humbled to have even been considered a nominee, never mind a recipient. The magnificent trophy already has five very illustrious names of previous recipients and I do not think any words are adequate enough to express the honour which I feel at being included alongside such people."

Who will be the 2001 winner? You'll have to be there to find out. For more information call Roy Jones on 0121 333 7555. Roy will also be pleased to receive suggestions and comments regarding speakers and topics for forthcoming dinners.