BEN, the automotive industry charity needs our support!

Posted on

Author: Guy Liddall

2020 has been an extraordinary year, and a challenging one for many sectors.

And while many senior executives are upbeat about the future, many of the sector’s employees and loyal servants need support right now. BEN, the automotive charity, gives that support, just at a time when industry performance and contributions have dried up.

This year has been a particularly testing one for the charity. And it was recently announced that they had a £1 million shortfall. Many groups have dug generously into their pockets, and we are asking our readers to do the same. Should you wish to contribute directly to them their donation page can be found here

https://ben.org.uk/support-us/

But there might be another way for you. 

You have always meant to get your CV professionally written, to get that competitive edge in what is a very competitive market. Over the next three months, our sister company Workagain is offering to donate £25 to BEN for every CV writing, interview coaching, assessment centre and personality profile package that is purchased through our site using a special code.

Just use BEN25 when you purchase your product and £25 will go straight to the charity. (And you’ll get 1p off, so we can count it properly!) Click on this link to use your code.

For individuals their support services focus on health and wellbeing: physical, mental, financial and social: http://ben.org.uk/our-services/support-services/ – within each campaign section there is a downloadable leaflet and case studies.

They need all of our support. 

THIS WEEK

There are plenty of stories of gloom and doom and despondency in the current climate. You would not necessarily want to own shares in Uber or Lyft at present. The ride hailing apps are not exactly in favour while no one has anywhere to go to, and while they do not want to be in the car with another human being. A tricky puzzle to unravel, especially as neither was exactly storming ahead pre lockdown.

You probably wouldn’t want to be Daimler either, as it was reported today that they have paid $2.2 billion to settle outstanding diesel issues in the US. And they are the subject of a very sizeable class action over here.

But you might want to be an electric car manufacturer, let’s choose one at random like Tesla, in Europe over the coming couple of years. They have been so successful, they are looking at a 5 for 1 issue of shares at the moment. What does that mean – instead of one share worth $1644 (the price today) you get 5 worth a fifth of that. So you can sell them more easily, and they will be worth about what they were a couple years ago. Except you now have 5 of them….

Or you might want to be a battery manufacturer for electric vehicles. As they pour millions into manufacturing facilities to service the car manufacturers. Because sales of electric vehicles in Europe are predicted to outstrip even China over the coming years. With 1 million+ units this year, electric is the future, or at least the medium-term future.

Finally GM’s potentially massive lawsuit in the US regarding Fiat Chrysler’s alleged bribing of officials at the United Auto Workers union has been thrown out. They initially tried last autumn but the case failed and today they have failed again with the judge saying that their new allegations are simply too speculative to warrant overturning the previous decision, which dismissed the case. With all that is going on in the world, GM will still be disappointed in the outcome.

Have a great weekend, don’t forget the brolly –  so long as it does not conduct electricity. There is lightning about.

More great feedback from another happy client “Just had my interview with Guy, it was amazing!! So helpful to me and has instilled me with a confidence I was lacking!! Thank you  and Johanna so very much for all of your help, it is very much appreciated and I now feel very excited about the future!!!” Tracy Beevis
If you’re thinking of brushing up your CV, let us produce a compelling, well laid out, expertly created professional CV.

 

Our Workagain division is creating professional CVs for people in many industries. And they really do work. Why not take a look here.

 

Call us or email if you are interested in what is proving to be a very popular service.

 
QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway. You’ll be damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884 – 1962)
No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.
Charles Dickens (1812 – 1870)
What you cannot enforce, do not command.
Sophocles (496 BC – 406 BC)
Drink nothing without seeing it; sign nothing without reading it.
Spanish Proverb
THIS WEEK

You see, while we all say it is doom, gloom and despondency out there, Toyota proves that that being in the right place at the right time with the right product lineup can inoculate you against whatever this pandemic can throw against you.

With estimates that they could make up to $7 billion this year, no mean achievement in even an average year, the group has cited an improving and recovering Chinese market, as the primary driver for such profits.

Ford will be helping hoping that their new chief executive, Jim Farley, will revive their fortunes. As most traditional carmakers, they are threatened by tumbling registration figures, new entrants to the market like Tesla and a very traditional infrastructure. Whether they, or many of the other big manufacturers outside Asia are nimble enough to get through the next few tricky years without being taken over by the Chinese, we will wait to see.

And in a significant ruling in the High Court this week, VW has lost its appeal against the class action being brought against it over Dieselgate and the emissions scandal. It was a fairly technical judgement, whether the device being talked about was a defeat device or not (it was according to the High Court) but it should pave the way for a relatively accelerated timeline, though judgement is not expected until 2022.

It is interesting to see that after initial analysis of the economy in June, the prediction has been that the apocalyptic predictions of almost 15% fall in GDP this year have changed. It is predicted to fall by less than 10%, still a big number but a lot less than it could have been. But it prompted me to wonder whether automotive had a role to play.

Do not forget that in April and May there was no automotive retail market to talk of. Since June most of our clients report it has been very strong, and spending on automotive, both new and used vehicles, is a significant part of a family’s expenditure. And a significant proportion of GDP. Is our industry, therefore, responsible for this bounceback in June?

Have a great weekend, you may want to put some drinks on ice. Or even yourself.

 

We’ve had some great feedback on the CV’s we’ve rewritten: “I asked Johanna Jenks at Workagain to look at my CV which I thought looked a bit stale. My revised CV is far better and really impactful! I’ve had some great feedback on it, including from our recruitment team, who really know what they are talking about. Thank you I am really pleased with the end result.” Tony Jones FIMI.

If you’re thinking of brushing up your CV, let us produce a compelling, well laid out, expertly created professional CV.

Our Workagain division is creating professional CVs for people in many industries. And they really do work. Why not take a look here.

Call us or email if you are interested in what is proving to be a very popular service.

 
 
QUOTE OF THE WEEK

In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
Thomas Jefferson (1743 – 1826)
The ancient Greek definition of happiness was the full use of your powers along lines of excellence.
John F. Kennedy (1917 – 1963)
Walking is man’s best medicine.
Hippocrates (460 BC – 377 BC)
The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind.
Maya Angelou (1928 – 2014 )
THIS WEEK

It was a week when the SMMT issued some dire predictions for registrations this year. And if we don’t get to the 1.6 million they are hoping we will register, then it will be the worst year for decades. Car production has fallen to its lowest level since 1954.

Not surprisingly some large motor groups also announced swingeing cuts across the board, aligned with eye watering losses. Inchcape and Pendragon with the two biggest names to go public with bad news, Inchcape’s £188m loss in the first half not looking too clever. Whereas Pendragon announced 1,800 job losses, with a clear indication that the motor industry should prepare itself for many more.

And the manufacturers were not exempt either. Having come through an emissions crisis that barely dented its fortunes, it seems that Covid 19 is an altogether tougher beast. VW posted a €1.4 billion loss in the first half of this year. If that was not bad enough, headlines tell us that a class-action has been launched against Mercedes, the biggest of its kind ever in the UK, for an alleged cheat device.

Renault, however, has dwarfed everybody with an $8 billion loss year to date. Their CEO, however, remains confident about the future and about their alliance with Nissan and Mitsubishi. Certainly they are not approaching it from a position of strength, but there is going to be a radical overhaul of the motor industry in the next few years, the alliance probably needs to closer.

All of this while a new while a relatively new entrant to the market, Tesla, continues to ride high. Despite predictions that they would never meet ambitious targets, they continue to confound their critics.

Have a great weekend, do not forget the sunblock!

 
We’ve had some great feedback on the CV’s we’ve rewritten:
“I asked Johanna Jenks at Workagain to look at my CV which I thought looked a bit stale. My revised CV is far better and really impactful! I’ve had some great feedback on it, including from our recruitment team, who really know what they are talking about. Thank you I am really pleased with the end result.” Tony Jones FIMI.
If you’re thinking of brushing up your CV, let us produce a compelling, well laid out, expertly created professional CV.

 

Our Workagain division is creating professional CVs for people in many industries. And they really do work. Why not take a look here.

 

Call us or email if you are interested in what is proving to be a very popular service.

 
QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.
Will Durant (1885 – 1981)
A specification that will not fit on one page of 8.5×11 inch paper cannot be understood.
Mark Ardis
The world only goes round by misunderstanding.
Charles Baudelaire (1821 – 1867)
I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.
Mark Twain (1835 – 1910)

THIS WEEK

For many, I suppose, it is nice to read about something other than the coronavirus pandemic in the news. However, if you are in the automotive industry the next worst thing to read about is that yet another manufacturer is being investigated for potential emissions “cheating”. It was announced today that Fiat Chrysler is being investigated by authorities in Germany, Switzerland and Italy. The investigation has included raids on their offices, as potentially illegal software, it is claimed, has been detected in a range of cars and commercial vehicles. It is certain that European authorities are keen to cut down on this type of software, which no doubt will miraculously disappear as soon as we all go electric, but it is said that Mercedes, Renault and Nissan are also under active investigation.

FCA and PSA were also in the news in the past 10 days, as they have announced the name of their new, merged group will be Stellantis. A rather obscure name, many would think, apparently it means something like “brightened with stars” – it is not named after a mythical town where you could get a well-known lager.

As Tesla has announced its fourth quarters profit in a row, it seems the analysts have finally started believing the hype and the share price has reacted accordingly. The future is bright, the future is electric is the message.

Have a great weekend, the Premier league will be finally over. Ready for it to start again in a couple of weeks.

Need to brush up that CV? A compelling, well laid out, expertly created professional CV can be the difference between an interview and rejection.

 Our Workagain division is creating professional CVs for people in many industries. And they really do work. Why not take a look here.

 Call us or email if you are interested in what is proving to be a very popular service.

 
QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Meetings are indispensable when you don’t want to do anything.
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908 – 2006)
Always be wary of any helpful item that weighs less than its operating manual.
Terry Pratchett
It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value.
Arthur C. Clarke (1917 – )
To die is nothing; but it is terrible not to live.
Victor Hugo (1802 – 1885), Les Miserables

THIS WEEK

They say that the coronavirus pandemic has brought forward changes in many industries. Food, pharmacies, garden centres have dramatically changed their models. We reckon what may have happened over the course of five years, has been brought forward by 2, 3  or even 4 years. It is possible that its effects will run even deeper and change everything even faster.

Take, for example, the headlines in the Financial Times this week. Normally there is lots written about all types of market development. Instead the first 10 articles are all about electric. “Battery start-up in Wales”, “BMW agrees €2bn battery contract”, “Nissan unveils new electric rival to Tesla”, “Rethinking Energy”, “Tesla’s share price rise stuns Musk”. And those are just the first five or six. Everything is focusing on electric, it will all change.

One of the main drivers of this, of course, ore the European regulations for manufacturers this year. Perhaps they won’t be facing quite the £30bn fines that many were worried about, that is only because vehicle sales will not be quite at those levels. If they do not get their emissions mix correct, then they will certainly face the wrath of the EU commission.

All of this poses real problems for the dealers, of course. I have used the analogy before, but we are moving to a completely new technology that needs very different levels of maintenance. And we all remember (if we are old enough) those TV shops of our youth, with a thriving aftersales department replacing the valves in your television, or giving the rented TV set a service. They have just been re-tuning the three channel buttons, but it made money. Then all of that disappeared from the High Street, and TVs just became throwaways.Nobody is quite suggesting you are going to start throwing away cars in the same way, but when the only replaceable part at a 20,000 mile service is the pollen filter, dealers are going to have to think up some very creative ways of making money out of aftersales if the whole fleet goes electric.

Have a great weekend, time to book your holiday, perhaps?Need to brush up that CV? A compelling, well laid out, professionally created CV really get you noticed in a pile of applications.  Our Workagain division is creating professional CVs for people in many industries. And they really do work. Why not take a look here. 

Or call us or email if you are interested in what is proving to be a very popular service.
 
QUOTE OF THE WEEK

There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.
Jawaharlal Nehru (1889 – 1964)
Well done is better than well said.
Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)
One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.
Marie Curie (1867 – 1934), letter to her brother, 1894
Keep on going and the chances are you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I have never heard of anyone stumbling on something sitting down.
Charles F. Kettering (1876 – 1958)

THIS WEEK

A bit of a disagreement, it would be too strong to call it a row, has broken out this week between Robert Forrester, head of Vertu, and the SMMT. Because after publishing the June figures, which I have to say were in stark contrast to the reports we were receiving around the industry, Vertu’s boss has come out and said that the SMMT figures have not painted a true or accurate picture of the month.

 

Many of the dealers we have spoken to have confirmed that June was actually quite a strong month, with enquiries and indeed retail sales up significantly on the same month last year. So why did the SMMT figures show a 35% drop? Robert Forrester’s argument, and it probably has more than a ring of truth to it, was that neither the manufacturers nor the retailers wanted to engage in the normal end of month registration rush. In other words, nobody knew what the market was going to be like, so they were not chasing market share.

 

This clearly may well change this month, as we have all had a few weeks back and are better able to gauge what the customer is thinking. Certainly some are predicting a V shaped recovery from recession. Others are confident that with consumers needing alternative ways to get to work when they return, the car will be seen as one of the safest ways of getting there. Let’s see what the next few months bring.

 

Otherwise, there is little in the news to cheer the soul. The government’s budget, or mini budget announced on Wednesday, provided little incentive for new car buyers. There is a growing call for a scrappage scheme along the line of some European countries, together with subsidies for electric vehicles to coincide with the green drive the Chancellor seems to be pushing.

 

Have a great weekend, the world almost seems complete now that cricket is back.

 

Need to brush up that CV? A compelling, well laid out, professionally created CV can say much more about you than your home-made efforts. Especially, as many seem not to have time to invest in this most important document.

 

Our Workagain division is creating professional CVs for people in many industries. And they really do work.

 

Call us or email if you are interested in what is proving to be a very popular service.
 
QUOTE OF THE WEEK

When you are not practicing, remember, someone somewhere is practicing, and when you meet him he will win.
Ed Macauley
When your work speaks for itself, don’t interrupt.
Henry J. Kaiser (1882 – 1967)
I’ve never known any trouble that an hour’s reading didn’t assuage.
Charles De Secondat (1689 – 1755)
You can question somebody’s views and their judgement without questioning their motives or
patriotism. 
Barack Obama (1961 – ), University of Michigan Commencement, 2010
THIS WEEK
 

On Wednesday we launched a proper, professional CV writing service. And a busy week it has been, but highly successful.

We still have some £99 CV writing vouchers left, if you need a new CV then we will either write one from scratch for you, or help you rewrite your current one. Full details are on our www.workagain.co.uk site. If you go to this store and select the CV writing service, just put the following code in at the checkout to make sure you benefit from this special price for automotive job seekers – MTS99JUL. This offer is open to the first 50 jobseekers.

In the meantime, news this week has been dominated by Lookers ongoing problems. As many will be aware, what initially looked like a serious £4 million hole in their accounts has turned into something altogether larger. The group had already announced a number of redundancies, it is difficult to see how it can avoid further cuts, especially as it had to suspend its shares on Wednesday to protect itself from the fallout. As if times were not challenging enough in the current market.

On a positive note, however, many of our clients have been reporting a bumper June. Some have said to us it was their busiest month for a long time, and possibly their best June ever. Quite how long this buoyant feeling will last rather depends on how quickly the country emerges from lockdown. With pubs among the many businesses allowed to open this Saturday, showrooms might be a little quieter than they have been.

Lookers are certainly not alone in suffering from the current pandemic, and manufacturers such as Daimler are predicting that market contraction caused by coronavirus will probably result in a much greater restructuring than they or anybody else had already planned. Everybody, including BMW, is racing to comply with EU emission standards just as sales have fallen off a cliff, and electric seems to be the way. And even if all of that wasn’t bad enough for the traditional motor industry, Tesla has seen a surge in its shares as deliveries are well ahead of expectations. It seems that the pandemic has changed the world, and it may well have changed the minds of car buyers too.

Have a great weekend. Football, Formula One, golf are all back, it’s cricket’s turn next week!
 
QUOTE OF THE WEEK

To follow, without halt, one aim: There’s the secret of success.
Anna Pavlova (1885 – 1931)
My momma always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.
Winston Groom, Forrest Gump
About the only thing that comes to us without effort is old age.
Gloria Pitzer, in Reader’s Digest, 1979
I learned early that sometimes you have to dig through garbage to get anywhere.
Michael Hainey, After Visiting Friends: A Son’s Story, 2013
THIS WEEK
 

We have a bit of a special offer for you. A CV Writing service aimed at the automotive industry – £99 for the first 50 job-seekers who want a professional compelling CV compiled by the industry experts (and we promise it will be good). Just drop me a line and we will send you all the details on Tuesday next week – guyl@www.mtselect.co.uk.

Why are we doing this now? Many of you may know that we have a sister company, BackupHR, which specialises in HR and employment law. And we have been delivering outplacement courses for their clients for many years, across a number of different industries. And challenging and enjoyable work it is too. And we have created plenty of great, original CVs for delegates to the courses.

So with plenty of requests from candidates across many industries, we thought we would offer it to those in our core sector, which we have never done before. It is something we have done for many years, and we have all of the software to do quickly efficiently, but most importantly compellingly.  This is considerably below many specialist CV writing specialists rates, whose documents we can normally spot instantly, and which often fail to hit the mark for such a results orientated sector as our own.

In other news this week, Aston Martin seems to have raised £260 million to pull itself out of the mire. Though they do say they are still quite deep in it. A much loved, iconic brand, it has had a pretty tough two years. And just as it launched its saviour model, the DBX, everyone shut their doors and stayed inside for Covid 19. Let us hope the second half of 2020 is better for them. The rest of the news will not make great reading this week, and the prospects for recruitment within the automotive industry for the next couple of months at least look less than rosy.

There will be winners and there will be losers from this challenging period. And despite the tales of doom and gloom, we will almost certainly finish up the year in a better place than we think is possible just now.

Have a great weekend, if you know any Liverpool fans probably best not to accept a call from them in the next couple of days, it could go on for some time.

 
 
QUOTE OF THE WEEK

One never knows what each day is going to bring. The important thing is to be open and ready for it.
Henry Moore (1898 – 1986)
You always pass failure on the way to success.
Mickey Rooney (1920 – )
It’s a sad day when you find out that it’s not accident or time or fortune, but just yourself that kept things from you.
Lillian Hellman (1905 – 1984)
Anything that has real and lasting value is always a gift from within.
Franz Kafka (1883 – 1924)
THIS WEEK

As the motor industry returns to work, and customers return in some numbers to showrooms and aftersales departments, there is still considerable uncertainty around.

With the news this week that Lookers has closed more sites, and is set to make some fairly drastic redundancies, we fear that they will not be the last. Ironically, however, the problems on public transport could mean that many have to turn to a vehicle to manage their journey into work. One of the reasons why the government guidance says that if you can work from home, continue to do so, is to take pressure off those transport networks. But for those that can’t, they may suddenly have to get hold of the right vehicle. And with today’s interest rates, and the amount of stock lying around, that might just be affordable for many families.

We are certainly not seeing much activity in the market at present, though there are some tentative conversations, and despite the well-publicised problems, we have had a number of candidates start in the past couple of months.

Ironically, as an organisation, we have been very busy because our sister company, BackupHR, specialises in HR and employment law. And our Thursday morning briefing has been extremely well attended, as we take everybody through the ins and outs of a rapidly evolving HR environment against the background of Covid 19 and the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. Registration for next week’s Webinar is here, the full agenda will appear closer to the time as the issues become clearer.

 
THIS WEEK’S JOBS
Here are some jobs from the past ten days. Check these out and see if there is anything tempting. Click on the link to apply immediately through our site. The situation is changing the whole time and if any link refuses to work, it is probably because it has already been filled and removed. Check out all our jobs at on our Jobs Page

Latest Jobs
QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Human beings are seventy percent water, and with some the rest is collagen.
Martin Mull (1943 – )
If absolute power corrupts absolutely, does absolute powerlessness make you pure?
Harry Shearer 
Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.
Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804)
The more original a discovery, the more obvious it seems afterwards.
Arthur Koestler (1905 – 1983)
Social Media Auto Publish Powered By : XYZScripts.com