Founded in 2008. The Landscape Juice Network (LJN) is the largest and fastest growing professional landscaping and horticultural association in the United Kingdom.
LJN's professional business forum is unrivalled and open to anyone within within the UK landscape industry
LJN's Business Objectives Group (BOG) is for any Pro serious about building their business.
For the researching visitor there's a wealth of landscaping ideas, garden design ideas, lawn advice tips and advice about garden maintenance.
Replies
Yes. The vans are good (in our oppinion - we have a number of them - Renault/Vauxhall variants). Two things I would say, the older Sportives came with very nice alloy wheels that get dinged and run lower hieght tyres which removes some ride comfort. I understand they now have steel wheels with fancy covers to make them look like alloys. They also have colour coded bumpers - good for looks but the rear bumper gets scratched to hell load/unloading. You can get sill/bumper protectors that help.
The Sportive is Vauxhall's upmarket version. Interstingly, Renault don't do it BUT their model specs are higher and you can get the electic pack, A/C, C/L all on a pretty base version. Our last two have been Renault Trafics for that reason.
Our average cost to insure a van (with any our guys over 25) costs ~450-500 per year FC, protected NCB. Each van does 12-15k per year. Gets a full service every year and oil changed regularly. Can wear front tyres quick if milage high, vans loaded and driven 'ethusiastically'. SWB 1.9cdti with no roof rack apparently can go 115mph on clock - so I've been told. Never experienced such speed myself........
You'l get a lot of doom sayers about vans, but EVERY make gets that. If you know it's history and/or you look after it, it should serve you well. We had a couple of problems - Air Mass meter, EGR value and turbo boost module. Not expensive to fix, but when they fail it goes into 'safe/limp home' mode.
We've been using them 2003.
The above is based upon owning quite a few over the years and is my own oppinion. I'm sure others will be along to support or contradict the above...;-00). What's key is that we have owned and run them. Any make can get isolated problems and if that's your ONLY experienced it will sway you. National, Budget, AA etc and quite a few others run massive fleets of them.
thanks for that gary, the deal i'm looking at is for a brand new van ive added the link below.
the insurance trouble is i no longer have any no claims due to an accident that wasnt my fault but my insurer wouldnt battle it for me i was over taking someone on a dual carriageway and they decided to swerve infront of me and because i hit the back of them it was my fault apparently. up to now my vans have always been owned by me and used by the business giving me a mileage allowance because my accountant said thats the better option for me but would it be easier to get insurance as the company with any driver above 25 (i'm 27 next year and i have no employee's)
vivaro sportive link
Matt,
before going down any leasing route, obtain from them their 'return conditon' policy. It states what is / isn't acceptable damage on return of vehicle (unless you are / can negoitate end of lease purchase).
For leased vehicles you need to protect your 'investment' otherwise they WILL penelise you. I can show/send you my return's policy (it's a 10 page colour PDF file showing acceptable dings. scratches, marks, wear etc). However, as it's my own/director's company vehicle it is easier for me to control it's condition.
Check out Vauxhall Dealer leasing as well - often have great deals but not sure about insurance offers
thanks gary that would be fantastic my e-mail address is matt@midlandgardencare.co.uk , the quote i'm possibly going for is finance lease £233.59 per month excl vat for 60 months and a baloon of £3282 excl vat no milage limit. within that 60 month period i hope to have an employee to take the van out and i'd like an isuzu rodeo eventually
Matt,
can't find my current policy, but this was from a previous lease we had. Still gives a good idea how they will assess the lease at the end.
However, from your last reply it seems you are going the lease purchase route rather lease contract hire. In this case it may not be relavent.
Another insurance point - they often raise the 'risk' element for vehicles insured in company names rather than individual's name.
For example my truck is a few % more expensive to insure under our company name. Our brokers (who are great) did a back to back quote to show this recently. Doesn't make a great deal of difference (or sense ?) in cost....
Possibly the new models are better but a lot of people I know has suffered clutch/flywheel/total gearbox failiure on these at low mileages. This included one gearbox that went from just noisy to locked solid on the A1 at 70 mph....
A friend that runs a drain jetting business had had three of the Renaults from new (base model) and has replaced the clutch in each one at least twice, two flywheels and 6 YES 6 gearboxes! Each one rejected as a warranty claim. Admittedly these vans run all day bang on max train weight but gearboxes (esp the 6 speed) are a known issue - maybe this has been sorted on the newer model?
We run a mixture of old 100bhp & newer 115bhp. To date we have not had a problem.
BUT we do know of the gearbox issues and are well know by those in the industry.
It happens because the seperate gearbox oil is often not checked/topped up/renewed by garages (including main dealers) because it is almost inaccessible and needs a simple, but special tool to check the level.
We have made a point of ensuring it is done (following good advice) and have never had a failure in 8.5 years and six vans (touch wood ......;-0))
Often it's down to how they are looked after by the drivers or how good your service agent is...
I can make any van fail by not topping up engine oil.....Must be bad vans then lol !!!
no i am within their criteria.
edward maul said:
those terms seem very fair, it basically means look after and respect the vehicle which i will as its part of my company image. my dad is a hgv mechanic and i'd be getting him to verify that the servicing has been done correctly.
Gary RK said: