Content editor's blog - Andy Russell Media - Professional Content Editor

August 11, 2019August 11, 2019

Fuelling a sense of misguided loyalty

You know you’re getting old when you not only start noticing filling station fuel prices but, like the weather, they become a major topic of conversation!

I’ve always been a fan of, what I call, premium brand fuel – Shell, Esso, BP – even though some people insist it all comes out of the same distribution tank.

So, with my local filling station being Shell, I had a Shell Drivers’ Club loyalty card and didn’t think twice about filling up our car, my motorcycle or the fuel cans for the lawnmower.

Occasionally I received a £2.50 voucher in the post off my next fill-up and duly used it next time I topped the tank.

Recently Shell replaced this loyalty scheme with its new Shell Go+ loyalty programme which now rewards visits with 10 being the magic number.

Two visits down, eight to go seems to be wanting a lot of loyalty.

My local Shell garage used to keep its fuel prices roughly in check with the local supermarket. I didn’t mind paying a couple of pence more a litre for Shell petrol or diesel but when the local Shell price was £1.39.9 a litre for diesel and local supermarkets were £1.26.4 and £1.27.9 it made me question the value of these Shell rewards.

With an 800-mile range, I usually fill our car when the gauge gets down to a quarter… or lower. On average, it takes 55 to 60 litres of diesel per fill.

Even at 12p a litre more, filling up with Shell is costing me up to £7.20 extra per tankful. Over 10 visits, at that price difference, that’s up to £72 more – only a few quid less than I would pay for 60 litres of supermarket diesel.

Free fill-up

That seems more rewarding to me – a free fill-up. Or the treat of a nice meal out with the wife, a couple of tickets for a football match or six bottles of half-decent wine.

Unfortunately, the new Shell Go+ reward scheme works on visits instead of points. Surely it makes more sense to be based on how much you spend. The more you spend, the more points you earn and the higher value of the rewards.

All you have to do is spend £10 or more on fuel or £2 or more in the shop. You get 10% off all hot drinks, deli2go, Jamie Oliver deli by Shell food ranges and Shell Helix Motor Oil and Shell Super Shine car wash or Quick wash every time.

AR diesel AdBlue filler — A visit to the Shell filling station normally involves 60 litres of diesel so 10 visits seems excessive to be rewarded.

So I could just fill up with £10 of fuel and turn my one tankful, at the Shell fuel price, into eight or nine visits but I can’t be bothered to keep going into the filling station.

And when I fill my motorbike it rarely takes more than £20 unless it’s running on fumes when I arrive and I don’t let it get that low. Normally it takes £16 to £18 so that would count only as one visit and, again, I’m not going to just top up with a tenner’s worth.

After a couple of visits I received a voucher for £2, hardly a reward given how much more I am paying for the fuel in the first place. It just doesn’t add up to good value at that price, however much you rate the fuel.

So instead of following this new reward programme’s slogan, after a couple of visits I will no longer ‘Say hello to Shell Go+’.

Instead, I’m bidding it ‘Goodbye’ because Shell fuel no longer seems a good buy for me!

June 1, 2020

Showrooms open again but Covid-19 will change sales experience and buying habits

Motor dealers reopened their showrooms this week after the Covid-19 closedown but, while back to business, it’s not business as usual.

There are strict social-distancing and safeguarding regulations but there are also no guarantees people are going to be rushing to make up for lost time and buy a new car, commercial vehicle or motorbike.

Car sales were being squeezed even before the Coronavirus pandemic reared its ugly head with economic uncertainty following Brexit. With Covid-19, things have gone from bad to worse.

While lockdown restrictions are being relaxed, the country is now in recession and many potential customers’ circumstances may have changed such as more debt, losing their job or less disposable income.

Meanwhile, more people working for home might see them keeping cars longer as they cover fewer miles, down-sizing models or even shunning owning a car by hiring one when needed or joining a car-sharing club.

Concern about returning to showrooms

That’s assuming the buying public feels ready to go back to car showrooms now they have reopened. Research from Auto Trader said 76% of car buyers were concerned about returning to showrooms.

And that’s also before you consider how consumer buying habits are changing.

Norfolk-based Holden Group has a dedicated digital sales team for those wanting to buy a car online.

The 10-week lockdown saw more people having to turn to buying online, with shops and businesses closed, and switched-on car-makers, motor groups and individual dealers were quick to realise, and react to, this momentous step-change in buying behaviour.

Volvo, Jaguar Land Rover and Toyota are among those marques stepping up digital sales platforms to move online business up a gear.

Despite launching online car sales with contactless dealership handovers, Toyota GB says its UK franchised car retail network would remain “the expert point of contact”.

They soon realised that if your showroom is shut, your website and digital presence is your shop window and the easiest way to keep in touch with your customers remotely from a distance of far more than two metres.

Many already had online sales platforms but still saw the showroom experience as key to sales, even though brokers have been growing their car-buying businesses online for many years.

So Covid-19 has comes as a timely wake-up call for many of them who are now putting serious investment into upgrading their websites and digital presence. I can testify to that from increased interest and inquiries from businesses looking for quality web content to engage customers online.

I know of dealerships, both car and motorcycle, which have taken orders for both new and used models, and completed the transaction, by phone and online and delivered the vehicle to the new owner’s home.

Click-and-collect orders

More recently, customers have been able to operate a click-and-collect ordering system provided they did not go into the showroom.

Some drivers will question buying a car without driving it, checking its practicality or even seeing it in the metal but many are happy to change for the same brand or model. They will happily assume the car is fit for purpose, and getting from A to B, and must be better than the one they currently drive. It’s called customer loyalty – be it to manufacturer, model or motor trader.

The internet is also a fantastic research tool with a wealth of news, views and reviews – road tests, pictures and videos about models and products so buyers can make informed decisions.

I suspect the retail motor industry has moved on a few years, in a few weeks, in the way it does business with the customer experience moving more online.

Volvo Cars has launched a new Stay Home Store online sales concept for several quarantined European markets..

No matter how modern, and slick, a dealership’s showroom and sales system are, many people, particularly younger motorists, find it increasingly outdated in our fast-moving world. Many experts in the motor trade and finance industry are suggesting a permanent move away from showroom-based sales is inevitable.

It also comes at a time when many big players, including Ford and Vauxhall, plan to reduce the number of their main dealerships.

And merging motor groups, such as PSA Group with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), would see a big brand business linking Peugeot, Citroen, DS Automobiles and Vauxhall with the likes of Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Jeep and Abarth. The result could be multi-franchise dealerships rather than multiple sites.

Cambria Automobiles chief executive Mark Lavery told Automotive Management last month he expects “Darwinian evolution” of the car retail sector. Up to 25 to 30% of car retail businesses could go out of business or be taken over within two years as the effects of the pandemic continue to take their toll.

Meanwhile the AM Covid-19 car retail recovery survey revealed that car retail group operators feared more than 30% of the sector’s workforce could go because of the slump in trade and changes to operational practices enforced by the pandemic.

This worldwide Covid-19 pandemic is not the end of the world but it’s the end of the world as we knew it.

Social-distancing, essential travel, working from home and the whole lockdown scenario are changing people’s thinking and the way we do things in future, possibly forever.

January 3, 2020

Lighten up if you want to be seen and safe

One of the bright spots of the year is now over so the Christmas lights are coming down to be packed away for another year.

It never fails to surprise me how much effort some people make to light up their homes, gardens, even the whole neighbourhood, and it really adds to the festive fun and seasonal spirit.

It also amazes me how many people drive around with lights out on their vehicles, or even no lights at all, and that really annoys me.

On our daily commutes we tend to pass the same vehicles and, day after day, I see the same ones with the same duff lights – or driving on just sidelights, sidelights and front fog lamps or even none on at all!

Check your lights regularly

For goodness sake, check your lights regularly… although it must be obvious if a headlamp has failed!

Why not make it a new year resolution to put as much effort into making sure your vehicle’s lights are as bright as your festive display and all functioning. It’s a quick check and most bulbs are easy to replace or your local garage or motoring store can sort you out.

As a motoring journalist, I get asked a lot of questions about cars and motorbikes, driving and riding, technical stuff and general TLC.

I often have answers but, if not, I’m happy to find out myself – after all, every day is a school day and you never stop learning – or point them in the right direction to solve the puzzle.

When should you put lights on?

One question I am frequently asked is ‘When should you put your lights on?’

I draw on a simple, but clever, explanation I was given by a friendly traffic cop. I hasten to add he is a friend and I hadn’t been pulled over for some motoring misdemeanour.

His answer is simply “When you wonder whether you should have your lights on’. It’s not rocket science but effective.

It is surprising how many drivers use the wrong lights or none at all when its dark.

Our brains act like a light monitor – remember photographers using them to set their cameras up for the conditions – and will trigger the thought about putting your lights on when it is getting dark or murky.

It’s always better to have your lights on when you don’t really need to than not do so and be left in the dark.

But what about vehicles with lights that come on automatically.

Yes, they’re great most of the time but, like anything automated rather than human, can be fooled and don’t always react to the conditions.

They don’t always see fog or mist as being dark enough to turn on the lights, nor do they always come on in heavy rain.

It’s down to driver’s common sense…

So, in those conditions, it’s down to the driver’s common sense to over-ride the auto function and put the headlights on manually.

Yes, headlights. Not just sidelights and certainly not sidelights and foglights. If it’s dark enough to need lights then use the head lamps – it ain’t going to drain the battery while your’re driving. See and be seen. Cars with auto-operating lights go straight to headlights, not sidelights!

As far as I am concerned, sidelights are positioning lamps so other drivers are forewarned of the car’s presence if you have to park in a dark place or where visibility is poor.

Highway Code lighting rules

In the Highway Code’s lighting requirements Rule 113 includes:

Use headlights at night, except on a road which has lit street lighting. These roads are generally restricted to a speed limit of 30mph (48km/h) unless otherwise specified.
Use headlights when visibility is seriously reduced.
Night (the hours of darkness) is defined as the period between half an hour after sunset and half an hour before sunrise.

Rule 114 includes:

You MUST NOT use front or rear fog lights unless visibility is seriously reduced. You MUST switch them off when visibility improves to avoid dazzling other road users.

And Rule 115 says:

You should also use dipped headlights, or dim-dip if fitted, at night in built-up areas and in dull daytime weather, to ensure that you can be seen.

So there you have it – both opinions and officialdom. But the abiding message is to make sure all your bulbs are brilliant and give everyone some light relief!

September 19, 2019

Putting a brake on speeding

After 42 years of driving, and what must be nearly one million miles of motoring on two and four wheels, I have notched up my first speeding offence.

I have always been speed aware, particularly in built-up areas with low speed limits, so to be pictured by a camera at 37mph in a 30mph zone came as a surprise.

A momentary lapse of concentration and my brain telling me it was a 40mph limit – it switches back to 40mph further along the road – saw me passing the camera at 40mph on the button only to receive the bad news in the post a couple of days later.

I opted to attend a national speed awareness course for £90, rather than pay a £100 fine and take three points on my unblemished licence. It was money well spent!

The speed limit was 30mph when I passed the camera – I thought it was 40mph!

I was expecting four dull hours of being lectured about being a naughty speeder but it was enjoyable, entertaining and educational, delivered in a serious, but fun, way that really helped get the message across.

It started with a photo quiz in which we had to work out the speed limit for various stretches of road and speed limits are for different types of highway, bearing in mind they vary if you are driving a van, lorry or towing.

I didn’t realise smart motorways reduce the speed limit to 40, 50 or 60mph to keeping traffic flowing miles further on by avoiding the traffic bunching. So when the speed limit drops to 50mph don’t question the fact there are no roadworks, accidents or such like. There is a genuine reason that’s out of sight.

Pay extra attention to signs

Speed limits often change near junctions so pay extra attention there and look for the ‘gateway’ limit signs each side of the road to show the speed change.

If you think a couple of miles per hour over the speed limit doesn’t really make a difference, you would have been amazed at a hard-hitting video… in every sense.

A modern family car stopped from 30mph in 23 metres under emergency braking. A cardboard box, representing a pedestrian, was then placed where it had stopped.
At 31mph the car hit the box at 8mph – at 35mph it was still travelling at 18mph.

From 20mph, the car needed 12 metres to stop – at 25mph it hit the box at 15mph.

Travelling at 50mph, the stopping distance was 70 metres – at 55mph it was travelling at 23mph when it hit the box.

At 70mph, it took 90 metres to complete an emergency stop – at 80mph it was still travelling at 39mph.

Between 30 and 40mph the risk of killing a person you hit soars from 7% to 31%.

Speed affects stopping, not arrival time!

Speed doesn’t really affect arrival time but it does impact on a car’s ability to stop. Double your speed and you quadruple your stopping distance… and that’s on a dry road.

Nationally, around 5% of accidents happen on motorways, about 33% on rural roads and some 63% on urban roads. In Norfolk, 70% are on rural roads. And 93% of accidents are down to driver or rider error.

So the message is very much know the limit, why it matters, how to stay in control and select a safe speed.

This educational speed awareness course also included knowing why speed creeps up, such a going downhill, and how to use second gear in a 20mph zone and third in a 30mph limit to help keep the speed down. You could use a speed limiter or cruise control, if fitted, but technology is just an aid to help control speed.

‘Funnel vision’ not ‘tunnel vision’

We also learned about the need for ‘funnel vision’ rather than ‘tunnel vision’ – being more aware of what is each side of the road, including road signs, and dropping back from the car in front when being ‘tailgated’ to increase your ‘safety bubble’. It means you don’t have to brake so hard to stop which could prevent the vehicle tailgating you shunting into your rear end.

Some of you will be saying I now sound like an anti-speeding zealot. So be it!

I paid the price of speeding but it was only £90 and four hours of my time. If I’d hit someone while speeding it could have cost them their life.

The prospect of having to live with that – for the victim’s and my own family and friends, as well as me – would be too high a price to pay.

Next time you’re following a car or motorcycle sticking to the speed limit, don’t get impatient and tailgate. Just consider that it could be me, or someone like me, who has done a speed awareness course and realises the value of their driving licence and the safety of other road-users.

June 25, 2019June 25, 2019

Hi-viz – seeing is believing but double check!

Ever felt you’re invisible? Or sometime you wish people would leave you alone.

I’ve got the answer. It’s not Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak… it’s actually a Hi-Viz jacket.

As a motorcycle rider, I know I might not be seen as easily as a car so wear an orange Hi-Viz waistcoat over my protective jacket. My crash helmet is white, as is my bike, and the headlight is always on.

I’ve heard a theory we are now so used to seeing bright yellow and orange safety wear that or brains don’t always react. However bright, they blend into the background.

The thinking is that pink is most noticeable. It’s not my shade but my wife’s work colleagues don’t take her Hi-Viz waistcoat and hard hat for site visits. She is a keen cyclist so also partial to lurid Lycra!

I recently met her at the halfway checkpoint on her 75-mile ride.

I was on my motorbike and spotted a pick-up truck on a side road approaching an upcoming junction. I’m an IAM Roadsmart advanced rider so, just in case, slowed from 55mph to 40mph.

Thinking ahead a wise move

It was a wise move. The pick-up sailed out without the driver looking left or right. Fortunately, thinking ahead meant I could avoid a collision.

As a motorcyclist, I make myself as visible as possible to other road users.

The driver looked surprised, actually terrified, to see me. I couldn’t have been more visible but motorcyclists get used to such encounters.

I arrived at the checkpoint without further incident and proved very popular with the cyclists.

One asked me where the toilets were. I put him right, and, no doubt, out of his misery after several hours in saddle!

When another couple of riders came up to me with the same query I just assumed I looked friendly and they assumed, at my age, had probably already found the toilets. Men of a certain age know that feeling.

Glad to be of assistance

I was just glad to be of assistance.

A steady stream of cyclists fired questions at me…

Where do we get lunch?

Can we fill our water bottles?

Do you have first aid kit?

How far to the finish?

Have you got a update on the weather?

I was the centre of attention for a lot of cyclists. I couldn’t understand why.

They thought I was a marshal

My wife and her cycling partner soon twigged my popularity with pedallers. They thought I was a marshal in my Hi-Viz waistcoat.

I found it rather amusing. The Hi-Viz wasn’t spotted by that driver but made me the centre of attention for cyclists. It was possibly because theyare also used to being invisible to some motorists.

I urge all road users to double check for other vehicles, particularly motorbikes and cycles which can be difficult to spot. That’s why sensible riders see a bright future in wearing orange, yellow or, possibly, pink!

March 29, 2019March 29, 2019

Rough ride ahead to plug that funding shortfall for filling potholes

The challenge of filling potholes saw one filled in England and Wales every 17 seconds last year, 1.86 million altogether and 20% more than 2017.

The good news is councils are filling more potholes. An extra £420m of government road maintenance cash resulted in a further 350,000 being filled.

The bad news is it is only stemming the decline in filling potholes in our rundown, worn-out roads.
The annual maintenance shortfall is still £657m across England and Wales, even with that extra cash and two years of 20% boosts for councils’ highway maintenance budgets.

The Asphalt Industry Alliance’s (AIA) annual local authority road maintenance (Alarm) survey revealed these shocking figures.

Councils nationally still need to spend £9.79bn over 10 years to bring all roads up to scratch.

It’s even worse in the east of England. The estimated catch-up cost is £654m and it would take 13 years.

Make do and mend

Patching potholes, rather than a permanent fix, is a problem and not the best use of money.

Patching potholes, not permanent fixes, is a problem and not the best value solution. Make-do-and-mend maintenance does not tackle the deep-down, underlying issues of our crumbling carriageways and years of under-funding.

We moan about roadworks and resurfacing schemes. The reality is that roads are resurfaced only every 67 years on average – once in your lifetime. A-roads carry the most traffic so are the priority for filling potholes. It’s sensible but not great news in rural counties with a network of country lanes.

Most motorists believe the condition of our roads is getting worse. Half have suffered some pothole damage so it’s not surprising. It’s expensive to repair a bent or cracked wheel, burst tyre or shattered suspension. The council may, or may not, foot the bill but take pictures and contact them to report the pothole. And ask when it was first reported as many councils have a target time for filling potholes.

My local BBC radio station interviewed me about the Alarm survey and state of our roads. I tried to be positive about the rise in filling potholes but the facts and figures speak for themselves.

Cracking up or scarred for life?

Scarred road surfaces can unsettle motorcycles and bikes and could break up and become potholed.

It’s difficult to be upbeat about trying to hold back the tide while baling out the boat with a leaking bucket.

That same day I did a long motorcycle ride with some biker friends. It reinforced how poor our roads have become.

It’s not just a case of filling potholes. There’s also:

Wide cracks between the lanes on dual carriageways which unsettle a motorcycle crossing them.

Peeling, scarred road surfaces at busy junctions.

Road markings and direction arrows worn away, confusing drivers and riders.

General surface debris – loose chippings, stones and bits of asphalt.

The Beast from the East blitzed the country last year. Thankfully, we’ve escaped the big freeze and snow so far that year. The mild weather is helping to prevent further road damage.

Harsh winter weather wrecks roads. Surface water seeps into cracks, freezes and expands. It’s like prising the asphalt apart with a crowbar.

In conclusion, the government must give councils another budget boost for road maintenance. They also need early notice to plan a priority programme of filling potholes properly to have any hope of plugging the holes in the road and their stretched, strained maintenance budgets.

Visit the Asphalt Industry Association website at http://asphaltuk.org/

February 22, 2019March 15, 2019

Overhead alerts can be pie in the sky

I am a law-abiding driver. When the overhead alerts on motorway gantries started displaying a 50mph limit because of an obstruction, I heeded the warning. I backed off the throttle, slowed to the required pace and set the cruise control.

The next gantry reaffirmed the speed limit and reason. So did the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth. The overhead alerts went on and on. Finally, we gave up counting. We also gave up looking out for the so-called obstruction.

We had already covered several miles of the M6, near Birmingham, at 50mph. My wife and I could not work out why the speed limit was in force. Nor could Mrs R understand why we seemed to be the only vehicle sticking to the 50mph limit.

We finally came to some roadworks – you almost inevitably do on most motorways and trunk roads – with, you’ve guessed it, a 50mph speed limit. In contrast, the overhead alerts were still advising a 50mph speed limit due to that obstruction.

I think the reason no one paid any attention to the speed warning is because there was nothing obvious to justify it. It was miles before we actually came across the roadworks. I’m still not convinced they were the original ‘obstruction’ .

Overhead alerts more pie in the sky

Confusing overhead alerts are not a new experience for me. They’re often more pie in the sky than serving any practical purpose when it comes to road safety,

We were also using Waze, the world’s largest community-based traffic and navigation app. I find it very informative due to other drivers in the area sharing real-time traffic and road info. That makes it extremely up to date. Motorists are even warned of cars stranded on the hard shoulder with extraordinary accuracy, both time and exact location.

Surprise, surprise. All the time we were sticking to the 50mph limit, being passed by other motorists, there was no mention about any upcoming obstructions. Waze was clueless too!

In this fast-moving world of data and information, we have no way of knowing how long the overhead gantries had been displaying the obstruction warning. It was showing on at least a dozen, in contrast to the no show on the carriageway. That’s why many drivers assume it is out of date, irrelevant, and ignore it.

Make sure the information displayed is accurate and time sensitive but, most of all, relevant. There needs only to be a couple of overhead alerts on the gantries
ahead of an obstruction. Not a guessing game of when you will come across it… if ever.

Perhaps it’s a case of carriageway crying wolf. It seems, given past experiences and lack of visual proof, these warnings become worthless.

Overhead alerts serve no purpose if they are not relevant. If so, switch them off because drivers are switching off to their message.

February 22, 2019March 14, 2019

Used diesel car price boost due to supply and demand shortage

Mrs R drives a diesel car and, like so many other owners, is getting gloomy about how much it is going to be worth when the time comes to upgrade it.

Since the diesel debacle, fuelled by some dodgy data by Volkswagen which woke the world up to nitrogen oxides which can cause breathing problems, more and more motorists are being driven away from the black fuel pump.

Add some sensational national newspaper headlines, basically telling people to avoid buying diesel cars, and it’s no wonder sales plummeted.

December marked the 21^st consecutive month of falling sales despite the latest Euro 6 diesels, many of which use AdBlue stored in a separate tank, being ultra clean. AdBlue, injected into the flow of exhaust gases, turns into ammonia and carbon dioxide and reacts with the harmful nitrogen oxide, transforming it to harmless nitrogen and water.

But, for many motorists, the myth is that all diesels are dirty so, while last year’s UK new car market was 6.8% down on 2017, the diesel sector declined 29.6% from 1,065,942 registrations in 2017 to 750,165 last year – a 31.7% share of the total sales market compared to 62.3% for petrol which means petrol now outsells diesel by two to one.

But every cloud has a silver lining, in fact it’s a little ray of sunshine that could have some diesel owners beaming with relief when it comes to time for upgrading their wheels and moving their old motors on.

The average used diesel has lost 10% of its residual sale price from the beginning for 2017 to the end of 2018 while petrol models are showing a comparable price rise.

While new diesel sales have slumped, the used market has held up well so diesel owners could benefit from this supply and demand.

New diesel sales have dropped so fast that the Vehicle Remarketing Association (VRA) now believes it could soon mean shortages of good used stock to meet demand because half a million fewer new diesels have been sold in the UK over the two years since ‘Dieselgate’.

By not owning the car from new, used buyers aren’t so affected by depreciation. Instead they buy diesels because they are economical, ideal for high mileages – when they are working most efficiently – and make good tow cars.

So it could even be the case that certain good, quality used diesels, especially Euro 6 models, carry a price premium, especially where they boast considerably lower running costs than the petrol equivalent.

After two years of diesels getting a bad press, that is some good news diesel car owners will really value.