LINGsCARS

I think UBI would have been FAR lower than 80%. The 80% is the best solution and very generous IMHO.

Jim Reid, the defacto head of the IMDA is now reacting to my disagreement with his petition trying to squeeze money out of the Government, by waging war on me on a totally different topic, my website, on Twitter. Here we go, when the IMDA is criticised, they attack. Oh, I love the motor industry. I'm not suggesting I am perfect, just that the motor dealers should look after their staff, instead of relying on the taxpayer. - Ling

That'a a great attitude, Rory. I have OFTEN run into that attitude, many times... I should get punished because car Dealers have such a crap and archaic salary package for their employees? Me? I'm not the one paying the crap salaries, nit. I am on the side of the employees here, BUT it needs to be the Car Dealer companies that pay the crap salaries doing the sorting it out... not the taxpayer. Car Dealers have benefited from things like paying crap sick pay, crap holiday pay, crap maternity pay, crap pension contributions, lower wages over Christmas due to the trading effect, offering crap job security to their employees and making it harder for them to get mortgages etc, all because they think they should pay them crap salaries and because it stacks the payroll in the employer's favour. Nice. However, if they treated employees like modern employers do, and paid them more equitably, this situation wouldn't arise. Has one Car Dealer said they will now change these crap salary arrangements, due to this anomaly being highlighted by the 80% scheme? No. Have they hell. Has one of them admitted they have created any hardship due to their archaic salary practices,...? No. It's about time these things were changed in the 21st century. And car salesmen and employees accepting these crap schemes should get a bit of a backbone, too, and demand normal salaries like the rest of society. If Car Dealers ran the ambulance service, they'd want to pay Paramedics a £12000 salary and £100 for every life they saved, claiming it gets better results and "that the staff like it". The taxpayer is supporting every PAYE employee equally as best as can be designed. They have responded tremendously. Of course there will be inequities, BUT THIS INEQUITY HAS BEEN CREATED BY CAR DEALERS AND IMDA MEMBERS, not by the Government. To start petitioning the Government for extra money for car salesmen who have their feet up watching Netflix, at a time like this, absolutely stinks. Ling Umesh is a ^VERY^ nice guy, I would agree he is one of the best. Always helpful, never spiteful. But, in this situation, I believe he is wrong. And embarrassingly, ...because I'd NEVER want to suggest that car salesmen should be singled out for special treatment in the current situation. Look after the ill, support the NHS, don't go banging on about car salesmen.

Well, while the Government are building 4,000 bed, 5,000 bed and many other pop-up hospitals throughout the UK to cope with the mass ITU requirements, and airline staff and retired NHS staff are being drafted in to assist (and to be exposed to the virus), and while 750,000 people have volunteered to help the NHS... and while doctors and nurses have started dying... and hundreds more patients are dying daily... and paramedics like my niece are ill with Covid symptoms... ...to be begging for extra cash for CAR SALESMEN because their employers have traditionally run crap salary schemes and archaic remuneration practices, is just not on. The Car Dealers themselves should sort their staff out, while they sit at home and watch Netflix, not the taxpayer. To broaden the argument to other workers (Estate Agents etc) is just as disgusting. Stop covering your shame by dragging other sectors in to obfuscate the situation here. For years, Car Dealers have pocketed the benefits of crap salary and high-loaded commission schemes... now put your hands in your pockets and sort your staff out. If they need sorting out. For instance, i spoke to Daksh recently, he is paying 90%, not 80%. Every little helps. Why don't YOU ALL do that? I am topping the 80% up with cash payments, why don't YOU ALL do that? It's not the Government "doing this" to car salesmen, it's their own employers, IMDA members who have *done it to them*... you all need a mirror as big as that Nightingale Hospital, and get staring into it. Are Car Dealers REALLY that blind to see they have caused this inequity? So stop begging the Government and get it sorted out, yourselves. Quit this petition, it is a disgusting money-grabbing exercise to subsidse Car Dealers own responsibilities. Shame on all who pay staff in this way and now beg. Stop petitioning to scrape extra taxpayer money from the frontline fight against Covid19 to divert it to Car Salesmen (FFS, car salesmen). Leave the taxpayer money for the NHS. - Ling

A gentle reminder that it is the EMPLOYERS who have caused this situation, so how about the EMPLOYERS (in this case car dealers) sorting it out, instead of begging the taxpayer for extra money to bail their payroll out and to subsidise their crap employment practices? This petition stinks. - Ling

yes, enjoyed that. 2008, a lifetime ago.

Surely you are an employee, so you will get the 80% up to £2500? Personally, I own my business 100% with my hubby, but we always took the view that PAYE was more equitable from a tax point of view than paying myself dividends... I like to piss in the pot. I'm naiive, but at least my paying full whack PAYE tax means I get the 80%, so I can smile a bit about that.

yeah... I will furlough after the 1st of April (appropriate day?). I have paid my staff full salary up to then, because I felt they deserved it. I have assured my staff that even though they will be getting 80% of good full salaries, I will also top up with additional payments. Yeah, it's worrying for everyone, but we are motor dealers, not NHS responders or any of those people with the difficult jobs. So i find the petition sickening and ashamed to be part of an industry that begs the taxpayer for more money when many industries are in a similar boat and it's entirely a problem caused by the employers - Motor Dealers. Perhaps in future this crappy low-salary policy operated by some (most?) dealers will stop? I hope so. - Ling

Hi, ... I'm being nice. ... I wasn't attacking anyone in particular, I was criticising the stupid (IMHO) IMDA petition, which is trying to get yet more Government/taxpayer subsidy on a special-case basis for car dealer staff, when the entire problem of crappy low salaries has been caused by car dealers treating staff badly for years. When people are dying, and everyone is doing their best and in it together, the car dealers should not be begging for extra Government support paying wages which they have been deliberately suppressing for years, for their own benefit.If there is an issue then CAR DEALERS should fix it, not the taxpayer. It is not in the spirit of everyone fighting the virus together, equally. I didn't make it personal in any way... and then that TRADE VET Ian??? launched in with some very personal (and very incorrect) attack on me. What have I done wrong? I dunno? - Ling

I lease new cars. About 800-1000 a year. Well, I did before last week.... I am a Chinese-born female, 46, with an office in Gateshead, 7 staff at the mo. If you search LINGsCARS, there is loads online about me. - Ling

TRADE VET Do you know who "Trade Vet" is? Does anyone know? I hate it the people seem to think it's fine to troll and slander on a personal basis, anonymously. Thanks.

TRADE VET Do you know who "Trade Vet" is? Does anyone know? I hate it the people seem to think it's fine to troll and slander on a personal basis, anonymously. Thanks.

Hmm, an anonymous person trolling lies. Publish who you are instead of hiding behind a nickname, tell me how many people YOU employ, in which company, and I'd have far more respect for engaging with your sour opinions. Cowardly anonymous troll. Go away. I file you in the bin. Ling Grassy ass, as they say in Spain. Ling

Umesh and the IMDA, This is SO wrong. I'm incensed. This petition is pathetic. Your Motor Dealer firms should pay decent salaries in the first place, not pay a pittance & then expect the Government (tax payer) to bail them out as a special case. I pay decent salaries... why don't IMDA firms? Disgraceful begging in these times. Get a backbone, not begging bowl. You think I'm in a better position to support my own staff? I've liquidated assets, I'm selling my farm, vehicles, even the TVs that line my office walls, I've tipped in an ISA. I was homeworking my staff 2 weeks before anyone else. I'm Chinese, I saw this coming. My parents have been confined for nearly 3-months, now. I really object to this tin-rattling begging of the motor industry as a special case. Car salesmen aren't in the line of danger with covid. Car salesmen are sitting at home with their feet up and a beer, watching TV, FFS, watching the NHS staff who are in the line of danger, as if they are watching an episode of Casualty. Is tea ready, love? I've got a niece who is a Paramedic who is showing Covid symtoms, because she has no PPE and is putting herself in danger. Where is her extra "boo-hoo" money? Car employers should assist their own employees if the employees have hardship (maybe by selling assets like I am to raise cash), not demand more than other workers are getting from the taxpayer. Exactly, it's hard. I know it's hard. I'm selling my home to stay cash rich in this crisis! But I'm not begging the taxpayer for more cash. Really, you IMDA lot need to look in a mirror. You are car salesmen, not key workers putting their lives on the line in crap PPE and saving lives while killing yourselves. Get a grip. I'm not being personal, here, it's just that petition stinks. We are all in this together...the country, not the motor trade. The Government is doing a wonderful business support job. They's given grants to businesses, guaranteed loans, removed business rates, and given a temporary suspension of "wrongful trading" rules for company directors to remove the threat of personal liability during the pandemic, as well as subsidising 80% of worker's salaries. Unheard of support... but just because car firms have created their own mini-problem because they are too tight/greedy to pay reasonable salaries (and want to save on sick pay, pension contributions, redundancy payments, payroll liabilities etc etc), this is NOT the Government's issue. And because car salesmen are so weak they meekly accept this crap salary system, is NOT the Government's issue, either. If this issue needs solving, car firms should solve this, with their own money. I want the Government supporting key workers, building hospitals and saving lives, not supporting car firms who underpay their own workers. many things will change due to this pandemic, and this crap salary system should be one of them. I have pledged my staff to pay additional top-up cash amounts over the 80% furlough, and my staff get good, full salaries to begin with! Not motor industry joke salaries. But, I want to look after them! Other firms are doing more, too. Daksh at Marshalls has said he will pay 90% on furlough. That is the kind of support people need, not a begging bowl to the Government. And stop dragging other industries into this. I'm ashamed to listen to this begging crap from the motor industry. Grow a backbone, get a grip, pay your workers some decent money and stop rattling cans at the taxpayer. And car salesmen... you are not innocent in this, either. Where are your savings? Why have you let this situation become so critical? You need to take some personal responsibility here in accepting this state of affairs and think of others in far worse positions, not yourselves. There are other mechanisms to help you... mortgage holidays, no evictions, Universal Credit. Get on with it. Can you tell I'm annoyed? ...AND DON'T CATCH THE VIRUS! Stay well. Ling LINGsCARS

Oh, MG is one of the fastest growing "marks" [sic]??? Well, starting from 100 cars, to sell 200 is a 100% increase. Talk in absolute numbers and it's hopeless. Anyone can quote daft percentages... a) you mean "marques" b ) It has hopeless sales numbers. In February, it's dealers sold less than 2 new cars each. Including self-reg MG cars. I sold more new cars on my own in Feb, than EVERY MG dealer in the UK, combined. c) Cars are hopeless. d) Management is inept and mainly ex-failed MG Rover, LDV and similar operatives. Marketing is myopic nonsense. e) Dealers are crap, with capital K. f) MG Motor financials in the UK are crap. g) The truth is, the UK operation is a front so MG can claim "Britishness" in China, where they actually sell some cars. I'm Chinese, so I understand what they are doing to sell cars in China. But journalists...? sheesh. Try looking harder. Who writes these reports...? Guess you have an MG demo and need some inches? Ling LINGsCARS

Comments about out of hours business are very true. Dealers are generally daft for not taking advantage of night. I don't have any route to market, except web. Here is a graph of last 90 days of my incoming car lease proposals, bottom axis shows 24h clock. You can see that over 1/3 of my business is outside normal working hours (more if you realise Sunday is open-late/close-early day for most car dealers). No one else will ever show info like this. Basically, they don't have it (inept) or don't know it (ignorant), or won't disclose it (stupidly secretive). Ling LINGsCARS.com

Clearly this story is rubbish, to anyone reading it with half an active brain cell. If... "In the two months they have been operating on the M25 in Kent, they [CAMERAS] have caught almost 700 motorists" ...then the cameras are clearly not set to catch anyone "exceeding just 70mph". So the headline is nonsense too. It's all nonsense. Obviously, the cameras are set to a far higher speed if they caught just 700 people in amongst the MILLIONS who passed them "only just exceeding 70mph". I'd hazard a guess they are set no differently to every other speed camera. It's common sense, not rocket science. You are being outraged unnecessarily, Mr Channon. ... So, please stop writing and headlining (La Baggot) this utter nonsense and made up shyte. If this is the Editor's standard, God help us. Insha'Allah. Ta. Juis suis Ling. Ling LINGsCARS