The Government has announced a strategy to tackle congestion caused by motorway closures and drive down the £1bn annual cost to the economy. This included the launch of a £3m fund for police forces to purchase laser scanning technology to speed up of the investigation process and incident clear up times.

Fuel could become the highest pence per mile cost of running a company car in less than five years, says CFC Solutions.

The fleet software industry market leader points out that petrol and diesel prices have risen by roughly 50% in the last five years and there is every reason to expect that they will increase by the same amount before 2016.

The new advisory fuel rates (AFR) for company cars can be used immediately, although companies are under no obligation to do so until the beginning of January.

The new fuel figures replace those advisory rates which have been in place since the beginning of July, and generally increase the amount payable per mile for diesel company cars. The latest AFRs are tabled below and are based on engine size.

We tend to think of car accidents as major collisions involving thousands of pounds' worth of remedial bodywork attention.

But, in fact, the bump in a car park, the broken door mirror, the ding in the door, are actually the most common type of collisions experienced by firms around the world.

Having survived two recessions and read about many more, writes David Rawlings of www.businesscarfinanceltd.co.uk, I know that this industry is one of the most cyclical. Typically we all become depressive as sales slow and costs increase, then we toast our amazing foresight when residual values improve and interest rates fall.

So instead of ignoring or joining in with the doom mongers use the current financial situation to your advantage and enjoy the benefits of good fleet management.