Old Vans

[greengiant]

Some of the year old vans in our office are wrecks! Dented sills, doors knocked out of alignment and needing slammed to shut!

[30+YEARMAN]

I was once told RM don,t own any of the vans now they are all leased.

[The_Wax_Man]

I was once told RM don,t own any of the vans now they are all leased.

They are on a finance lease agreement I'd imagine.

RM agrees to purchase at negotiated cost with manufacturer.

Finance company is then involved to finance the cost - i.e leased back to RM

Lease works on a timescale with monthly depreciation cost i.e 5 years.

After a set period of time, the vans are fully depreciated and have zero costs on them. ( Although Maintenance and servicing costs increase on older vehicles) - At that point if RM decide to sell, then if even for £1, its a profit.

The way of lease buyback purchase is so that RM can run the fleet without have the asset cost on the Balance sheet. All maintenance, tyes etc and servicing costs are also placed on a monthly depreciation cost.

Its the main reason why vans cannot just be added to the fleet at peak times, its normally an annual fleet churn and planned acquisition process dependent on future business growth.

[Celgar]

Yes certainly all the vans and probably the rest of the RM vehicle fleet is no longer owned by RM and is leased from another party. This is arguably not an economic way of providing vehicles for us to use but it sounds like it makes part of the accounts for the business appear different or better. Similarly the UK government still uses PFI contracts to make it appear like they are not borrowing more money than they already are. PFI costs the government more than if they arranged to borrow money on a low interest rate. It is likely RM vehicle licensing deal costs more than buying vehicles outright and maybe selling them on before they get too old and shot to ****.
Apart from the Mount Pleasant site and maybe one or two other large RM sites in London ALL other RM buildings & properties were all sold and immediately leased back by RM a number of years ago. This is an incredibly short-term way of running a business of any size and in the long term drains RMs books. One of the first rules of business is that you NEVER move from or exchange a freehold property for a leasehold property. It is an extremely unwise and potentially risky move especially for someone starting up in business. It shows a complete lack of business accumen on the part of the higher echelons within RM and bodes ill generally for our future.

[CPTNemoUK]

Apart from the Mount Pleasant site and maybe one or two other large RM sites in London ALL other RM buildings & properties were all sold and immediately leased back by RM a number of years ago. This is an incredibly short-term way of running a business of any size and in the long term drains RMs books. One of the first rules of business is that you NEVER move from or exchange a freehold property for a leasehold property. It is an extremely unwise and potentially risky move especially for someone starting up in business. It shows a complete lack of business accumen on the part of the higher echelons within RM and bodes ill generally for our future.

The past few weeks in our office our heating has been broke. But because our office in not owned by RM, RM won't fix it. We got to wait for the owner to do it.

[salomon2]

Got to love our new vans which are now petrol especially when someone fills it with diesel!!!!!

[mw7485]

One of the first rules of business is that you NEVER move from or exchange a freehold property for a leasehold property. It is an extremely unwise and potentially risky move especially for someone starting up in business. It shows a complete lack of business accumen on the part of the higher echelons within RM and bodes ill generally for our future.

It depends on what they did with the money raised. If they invested it in other fixed assets, its not so bad. Companies often release capital as a method of short term finance to cover unforeseen issues or expansion. If however, they used the money generated by the sale of such properties to offset normal running expenses (to keep profits up) and didn't replace the capital released, it is indeed a poor show as this weakens the balance sheet. Of course, they also loose the incremental increase in value those assets will accrue as property prices rise over time. If a business needs to sell fixed assets to cover operating expenditure over a long period of time, it could be a real sign of problems ahead. But then again, such asset stripping is quite alright in today's "profit now" business models. Gotta keep the numbers up and the dividend rising after all.....

[Celgar]

One of the first rules of business is that you NEVER move from or exchange a freehold property for a leasehold property. It is an extremely unwise and potentially risky move especially for someone starting up in business. It shows a complete lack of business accumen on the part of the higher echelons within RM and bodes ill generally for our future.

It depends on what they did with the money raised. If they invested it in other fixed assets, its not so bad. Companies often release capital as a method of short term finance to cover unforeseen issues or expansion. If however, they used the money generated by the sale of such properties to offset normal running expenses (to keep profits up) and didn't replace the capital released, it is indeed a poor show as this weakens the balance sheet. Of course, they also loose the incremental increase in value those assets will accrue as property prices rise over time. If a business needs to sell fixed assets to cover operating expenditure over a long period of time, it could be a real sign of problems ahead. But then again, such asset stripping is quite alright in today's "profit now" business models. Gotta keep the numbers up and the dividend rising after all.....

If you ask any reputable bank manager about what I have said they will confirm it. You simply do not exchange freehold for leasehold unless you are off your head. To be honest I dread to think where all the money went from the sale of all the property. If you consider how high rents are generally nowadays in the 'buy to rent' age and how rental amounts are linked to property prices. Then think about past events such as the 'Consignia' debacle and all the failed courier companies that were bought........... It's just too scary to contemplate!

[Nigel1505]

Got to love our new vans which are now petrol especially when someone fills it with diesel!!!!!

Done it once, the other way around, could have sworn I was filling my car. WHOOPS. Not done it since.....Yet.

[toomuchcoke]

Got to love our new vans which are now petrol especially when someone fills it with diesel!!!!!

Done it once, the other way around, could have sworn I was filling my car. WHOOPS. Not done it since.....Yet.

Aren't the nozzles, and corresponding filler necks, different sizes between unleaded and diesel? This meaning that whilst it's quite easy to fill a diesel vehicle with unleaded (do not ask me how I know this! ) it's not nearly so easy to do the reverse?

What mystifies me about our latest diesel vans is that they all have AdBlue tanks. Now that, in and of itself is no mystery at all but we've received no training or briefing on the subject, we've got no AdBlue on-site and mentioning the word "AdBlue" to management generates nothing more than blank looks.

[Ozzvaldo]

Got to love our new vans which are now petrol especially when someone fills it with diesel!!!!!

Done it once, the other way around, could have sworn I was filling my car. WHOOPS. Not done it since.....Yet.

Aren't the nozzles, and corresponding filler necks, different sizes between unleaded and diesel? This meaning that whilst it's quite easy to fill a diesel vehicle with unleaded (do not ask me how I know this! ) it's not nearly so easy to do the reverse?

What mystifies me about our latest diesel vans is that they all have AdBlue tanks. Now that, in and of itself is no mystery at all but we've received no training or briefing on the subject, we've got no AdBlue on-site and mentioning the word "AdBlue" to management generates nothing more than blank looks.

The blank looks will soon change if the AdBlue isn't replenished... the engine completely shuts down. On my van there is a warning light and a countdown of the mileage until shutdown occurs, but they only put the AdBlue in when it was reading 600 miles to go after repeated requests when the countdown started at 1500 miles. I hope your management don't dilly-dally more than the clots at my place.

[CPTNemoUK]

Got to love our new vans which are now petrol especially when someone fills it with diesel!!!!!

Done it once, the other way around, could have sworn I was filling my car. WHOOPS. Not done it since.....Yet.

Aren't the nozzles, and corresponding filler necks, different sizes between unleaded and diesel? This meaning that whilst it's quite easy to fill a diesel vehicle with unleaded (do not ask me how I know this! ) it's not nearly so easy to do the reverse?

What mystifies me about our latest diesel vans is that they all have AdBlue tanks. Now that, in and of itself is no mystery at all but we've received no training or briefing on the subject, we've got no AdBlue on-site and mentioning the word "AdBlue" to management generates nothing more than blank looks.

Don't know about adblue. But about the nozzle, I have also heard that about the sizes don't know where though lol.

[fishtank]

AdBlue sounds like something you would do at a Travelodge when you're sorting out your TV package.

[Lounge Lizard]

Got to love our new vans which are now petrol especially when someone fills it with diesel!!!!!

Done it once, the other way around, could have sworn I was filling my car. WHOOPS. Not done it since.....Yet.

Aren't the nozzles, and corresponding filler necks, different sizes between unleaded and diesel? This meaning that whilst it's quite easy to fill a diesel vehicle with unleaded (do not ask me how I know this! ) it's not nearly so easy to do the reverse?

What mystifies me about our latest diesel vans is that they all have AdBlue tanks. Now that, in and of itself is no mystery at all but we've received no training or briefing on the subject, we've got no AdBlue on-site and mentioning the word "AdBlue" to management generates nothing more than blank looks.

The blank looks will soon change if the AdBlue isn't replenished... the engine completely shuts down. On my van there is a warning light and a countdown of the mileage until shutdown occurs, but they only put the AdBlue in when it was reading 600 miles to go after repeated requests when the countdown started at 1500 miles. I hope your management don't dilly-dally more than the clots at my place.

But if "the engine completely shuts down" due to the DOM's inaction whose problem is it, yours or the DOMs ?

[Lounge Lizard]

AdBlue sounds like something you would do at a Travelodge when you're sorting out your TV package.

"AdBlue is not actually blue at all, but is a colourless, non-toxic mixture of urea and de-ionised water" and I've heard a rumour that urine, also a mixture of urea and water, is a less efficient substitute.