Low Cost Vans

Many a weekday morning and the air around London is filled with the enticing smell of coffee. Normally it’s from commuters having a quick pick-me up on the way into work, but soon it could be coming from the exhaust pipes of London buses… Why you may ask? Well it’s another option in the battle to find more eco friendly bio-fuel. The fuel comes from oil that’s extracted from ground coffee, of which there is increasingly a lot.  Just in the UK for example, we consume half a million tonnes of coffee each year! It’s a volume which could power a city like Manchester says Arthur Kay, the green entrepreneur driving the coffee in buses agenda. He’ll be introducing a coffee run bus to London this summer - keep a nose out for it.  When you’re used to fuelling up at the pump it sounds a little hard to imagine, but unpredictable bio-fuels have been doing the rounds for a while - Sweden at one point used the carcasses of rabbits that had been culled to make fuel. That didn’t go down to well.  Howev...

If you haven’t noticed it’s hot. Very hot. Ideally I’d be lying by a pool somewhere soaking up the rays and drinking a nice cool beer. Instead I find myself in the middle of a very busy week driving around to meet clients in my non-air conditioned car. So over the last couple of days I’ve done some extensive practical research into the best ways to keep cool in transit when you’ve no air con… Here’s my best and most practical findings so far: Get in the car as soon as you’ve had a cold shower in the morning. Wet hair really helps keep you cool. Figure out how your fans work properly! They are the best way to keep the temperature down. But remember that they are most effective when combined with a source of fresh air; it’s best not to open your window all the way though as warm air may flood in - just open it a crack. Ice, ice baby. Back in the 40s and 50s before air con was ever an option, the residents of steamy Arizona invented their own air conditioning – ice. You need to stor...

I tend to think of driving in winter as a constant battle with rain, snow and misted windscreens. Driving in summer on the other hand, conjures up imagines of open top vintage cars with the wind in your hair and a new adventure every day. Like most things, the reality is a little different, with summer driving throwing up just as many risks as winter driving – the difference is that we’re probably a little less prepared for them. So let’s for the moment put aside the fact that in the UK we can get winter weather in ‘summer’ and look at the top things that you can be aware of to make your summer driving safe and sunny. Healthy tyres The higher temperatures that we get in summer can cause tyres which are damaged or set at the wrong pressure to blowout. So make sure that you’ve checked the condition of your tyres recently. And remember that if you load up your vehicle to take it on a holiday somewhere, check that the pressure of the tyres suit the extra load that you are carrying. Sun gla...

Algorithms. A decade ago we had no idea how much our lives could be influenced by this geeky sounding technology.   Sometime algorithms can work in your favour (I had at least a few passable dates when I let a computer try and match me up with Mr Right), but sometimes they don’t.  News is that a company called a3c has developed algorithms that will change the price of fuel at peak times. So not only could peak time see you sitting in traffic; it could also see you being charged royally for the pleasure.  The Director behind the company, Martin McTague, said that the company was “in advanced discussions with supermarkets and other large retailers” about introducing the technology in the UK. Apparently, it is already used in the USA and Germany, where fuel prices can change ten times during one day.  It’s likely that fuel would cost more during the day time and less in the night. This means, says McTague, that drivers could save money by fuelling up at the cheaper times.  I’m dubious. Dr...

Just in case it’s gone over your head, there’s been a fair bit of news recently about flying cars and the fact that they’re about to take off. As this could, in years to come, seem like a ludicrous prediction (in 1992, it was predicted that by now we’d have smellovisions - tvs that give off smells…), I won’t give too much opinion on the likelihood or not of flying cars. I don’t want to look ludicrous after all. Instead, here’s an overview of recent news on the subject. According to UK company, Gilo Industries Group, “the world’s first practical flying car” was created by them in 2009. This is the company that helped Bear Grylls fly over Mount Everest by strapping him to a paramotor – a fairly good credential. And as a further vote of confidence for this company, it has just received a £24 million investment from Chinese technology group, Kuang-Chi to double its workforce of 60. Dubbed ‘the Disneyland of engineering’, Gilo Industries Group also sounds a fun place to work. Forget the tir...

Know that famous London warning; ‘mind the gap’? The one that’s meant to stop commuters and tourists from injuring themselves when getting off the tube? Well there may be a new saying in London town - ‘Mind the robot’. Courier company Hermes, which delivers for heaps of companies (often have they brought me my latest pay day treat), is introducing a trial of self-driving robots in Southwark, a London borough. The robots will have six wheels and Hermes will send them out on missions within a two mile radius of its control centre. They’ll also be challenged with 30 minute turn around slots to see how speedy they are. And before you have any naughty thoughts that you could intervene and take the robot’s goods.. the precious cargo is in a secure compartment which customers can open with a code. During the trial, there’ll be one supervisor to watch over three robots. But it’s hoped that in time there could be one operator watching over 100. Think of how many robots would be weaving their wa...

A lumbering truck isn’t often seen as a graceful vehicle, but all that could be about to change... A group of French companies recently got together to investigate the possibility of an electric highway whereby trucks would be powered by an overhead electricity supply. This would see adapted heavy goods vehicles seamlessly transported along the highway fuel free - how effortless and very French. Apparently, this superhighway would only require slight operational adjustments to existing infrastructures and wouldn’t take much training to adapt the skills of the drivers. Sounds a no brainer if it works. Trucks of course do the heavy-duty work of transporting pretty much everything we use – from food to concrete to oil. Unsurprisingly in France, the greenhouse gas emissions of heavy goods vehicles account for 5% of the nation’s emissions. Interestingly, Sweden is already one step ahead here. Last year they ran a trial of an electric highway; it was 1.2 miles long and trucks that were ‘pant...