- BEN ON HOW AUTO RETAILERS CAN SUPPORT STAFF IN NEED
- CHRIS WISEMAN LEAVES WESSEX GARAGES
- MINISTERS TO DECIDE OEMs FOR 10% US CAR TARIFFS
- MERCEDES-BENZ UK SCOOPS ROYAL WARRANT
- WEEK AHEAD: Automotive Leadership Network
- MEET THE ‘HENRYS’
- ONS ADMITS ERROR IN UK CAR TAX DATA
- FTC TO DROP ALLEGATION AGAINST ASBURY AFTER TRUMP ORDER
- US OEM PRICE INCREASES: DON’T MENTION THE TARIFFS
- OPINION: What? The Truck? Why commercial vehicles matter
Ben on how auto retailers can support staff in need
Speaking in this month’s Auto Market Insight, Ben CEO Rachel Clift has outlined the scale of the challenge faced by auto retail in supporting their people as the charity publishes its latest Health & Wellbeing Survey.
“The industry is evolving rapidly, but our care for the people within it hasn’t always kept pace,” she said. This is why there has been a seismic shift in Ben’s role, from a traditional benevolent charity offering care homes and financial aid, to a wellbeing partner offering everything from trauma counselling to proactive resilience training.
Clift outlines five ways in which auto retailers can respond to the health and wellbeing challenges faced by their people. The first is partnering with Ben, which offers the BenLife platform, providing employees with 24/7 access to digital and in-person support. It is tailored specifically for the automotive industry.
Retailers should invest in training, with Ben offering courses including Mental Health First Aid, Managing Stress and Fuel Your Wellbeing. They should encourage regular one-to-one check-ins to create psychological safety.
Reviewing job design can tackle chronic stressors such as unrealistic targets, poor staffing levels and long hours. “Dealerships must rethink how roles are structured to prevent burnout.”
Clift also advises retailers use tools like the HSE Stress Risk Assessment to evaluate how their workplace is affecting staff health – and take action on the results.
* If you want to read the feature in full, and interviews with Pentagon’s David Peel, BYD’s Stella Li, former Renault boss Louis Schweitzer, Genesis’ Jonny Miller and Omoda’s Gary Lan, then subscribe now. You’ll not only receive future print issues, but we’ll also send a digital copy of the June issue.
Chris Wiseman leaves Wessex Garages
Wessex Garages MD Chris Wiseman has left the business after 25 years, nearly six of which were as MD. “I can look back proudly on how far we have come and what we have achieved,” he wrote on LinkedIn, “but the time has come to say goodbye.
“For me, it’s a new chapter, one where I will find a way to make a difference, improve and give a little back to an industry I have been privileged to work in and that has afforded me so much.
“In the meantime, it’s a lot of golf!”
Kasuho Takahashi also stepped down as a director last week; Mark Pardoe, Takuya Yamazaki and Kazushige Ito were all appointed as directors on Friday.
Ministers to decide OEMs for 10% US car tariffs
Ministers make have to “pick winners and losers in the UK car sector by deciding which manufacturers will benefit from lower US import tariffs,” reports The Sunday Times.
The UK has been allocated a 100,000-car reduced-tariff quota and this will be discussed by officials from the UK and US as they race to finalise the trade deal. It is understood the UK government will bear ultimate responsibility for how the quotas are allocated.
JLR is the UK’s largest exporter to the US, shopping 84,232 cars in the 2024 calendar year.
There had been hopes the deal could be rubber-stamped this week, but industry sources told the paper that US trade negotiators were “significantly stretched”.
Mercedes-Benz UK scoops Royal Warrant
Mercedes-Benz UK has been awarded a Royal Warrant to the King, in recognition of the “consistent supply of Mercedes-Benz motor vehicles to the Royal Household”. A Royal Warrant is granted for up to five years.
The company will now “proudly display the designated Royal Arms in accordance with the terms of its Royal Warrant of Appointment”.
WEEK AHEAD
Monday-Tuesday, Automotive Leadership Network meeting. After dinner speaker will be Jon Sopel. Other speakers include Sylvain Charbonnier, VW Group aftersales director, Richard Bruce, director of OZEV for DfT and Chris O’Rourke, MD of LKQ.
Wednesday, Chancellor’s spending review
Wednesday, UK unemployment
Thursday, Motorpoint full year
DATA INSIGHT
Meet the ‘Henrys’
£100k: Earnings the former chancellor Jeremy Hunt described as “not a huge salary”, for which he was blasted by commentators. Now, reports The Sunday Times, these people have been given an acronym – Henry, a ‘High Earner who is Not Rich Yet’. The £100k tax cliff-edge is a particular burden for many.
ONS admits error in UK car tax data
0.1%: How much the April CPI was overstated due to an error in VED data from the Department for Transport. It should have been 3.4% instead of the 3.5% reported. The ONS said it would, in line with policy, not be amending the April data.
GLOBAL AUTO
FTC to drop allegation against Asbury after Trump order
A Federal Trade Commission attorney has requested to remove an allegation of discrimination from the agency’s case against Asbury Automotive Group, reports Automotive News. This is in the light of Donald Trump’s executive order condemning holding companies liable for ‘disparate impact’.
In August 2024, the FTC accused three Asbury stores in Texas of a series of charges including overcharging Black and Latino customers. It is this accusation the FTC is trying to eliminate from the case.
US OEM price increases: don’t mention the tariffs
New car prices in the US are creeping up – but OEMs are framing them carefully to avoid backlash from Donald Trump, reports Automotive News. He recently slammed retailer Walmart for telling investors that “higher tariffs will result in higher prices”.
OEMs also don’t want to draw attention to tariffs because consumers might assume prices are higher than they are. “There is a risk that people will automatically think the price increase is 25% versus 2%, said Edmunds’ Jessica Caldwell.
OPINION
What? The Truck? Why commercial vehicles matter
For many Auto Sunday readers, vans and trucks are commodities that deliver your parts and shiny new cars. Beyond that, in your busy days you may not give them much more attention.
So why should you care about trucks and vans (beyond parts and car deliveries)?
For me, the main attraction of the often-overlooked commercial vehicle sector, is its essential, significant and inter-twined role in the UK economy. Or as Ford succinctly put it in their Transit ad campaign strapline, they are ‘The backbone of Britain’.
Trucks and vans (and coaches) make up 14% of all vehicles on UK roads, with 4.6 million vans and 600,000 trucks. Relatively small versus passenger cars in numbers, but then consider this; 90% of UK freight is moved by a truck or van and nearly 100% of UK food and agricultural products are moved by commercial vehicles.
Strict road safety and vehicle regulations do not make it an easy business. Commercial vehicle operators work in competitive sectors with high vehicle utilisation, so they rightly expect high standards from their vehicles and their dealers; minimal vehicle off road times, high MOT pass rates and often 24-hours service back-up.
It is not only in service that a commercial dealer has the opportunity to differentiate and add value. Vehicle sales is also an essential, involved and genuine consultation. This remains a key area of difference to passenger cars.
A commercial vehicle sales consultant will be dealing with an expert transport manager who deeply understands his needs and vehicle requirements. To add value, any truck sales consultant has to know, at the least, the same as the transport manager and be able to advise of the correct specification.
And, especially with trucks, every vehicle can be different. Understanding customer use cases, loads, operating routes and hours, driver needs, maintenance requirements plus funding options impacts the build specification of a business-critical piece of equipment. And this may be just for haulage companies. When the more complex needs of vocational (e.g. construction or waste management) trucks are taken into account, then a dealer’s expertise and product knowledge become even more valued.
But as I’ve said, there’s still a lot that unites passenger cars and commercial vehicles.
One such topic is that of decarbonisation. As with cars, vans have OEM ZEV mandates, albeit extended beyond those for cars.
However, beyond the recently extended Plug-in Van (and truck) Grant, there are few demand-driven incentives in place to encourage adoption of EVs.
For trucks, the outlook is more nuanced beyond the blunt instrument of an ICE prohibition. Today for many truck operators, there exists the choice of CNG/LNG, biofuels and also hydrogen ICE engines.
All of these solutions work today to reduce emissions and many are more suitable for long-distance operations, heavy weights and extended operating periods.
Electric trucks are here today and have an important role, but government policy and the lack of incentives to bridge the significantly higher capital costs needs to be addressed – and quickly.
The Association of Fleet Professionals and the BVRLA have to be congratulated on their Zero Emissions Van Plan for government. To quote another advertising strapline, government should ‘Just do it’ in relation to the plan’s key asks. All are simple and achievable today and will help OEMs, dealers, customers and air quality immediately.
So next time you next look out of your office at a truck delivering your new cars, reflect for a moment on the similarities with the passenger car dealer business but also the importance of a great dealer partner to choose, build, deliver and maintain an operationally essential piece of equipment.
A healthy and busy truck and van business is also the sign of a healthy UK economy because to use my own strapline, the commercial vehicle sector is ‘the barometer of Britain’.
Rich Hudson
Group MD, commercial vehicles, Ballyvesey Holdings
Get in touch: tristan@autosunday.co.uk
ISSN 2977-6597