Being forced to heavily reevaluate their business models is something that UK and American companies are accustomed to, after the price of petrol shot up last year. Many who relied on large fleets of vans to transport goods all over the country were forced to slash employee pay and take a number of their vehicles off the roads.

Fleets may need to be reduced even further now and companies pushed even closer towards breaking point as the government announces predicted further cost increases in the coming months. The worst part of it, according to many transport companies is that they are increasingly unable to formulate accurate profit projections. "We get a set of forcasts drawn up and then they mean nothing when petrol goes up so much" argues Jerry Henley, Managing Director of JHG Foods. Many business experts have predicted that 2009 will see similar levels of transport-based companies shut down as witnessed last year, which was around 15%.

Many people and businesses are on their last legs right now and the last thing they need is an increase in their overheads. "We are being crippled" argues Fiona Potter, who runs a small furniture chain in the UK. Our customers expect their furniture to be delivered to them, which is something that is becoming financially unviable for us now. A number of similar companies are turning to cheap van leasing in an attempt to cut their costs. Because they are not buying the vehicles outright, they can afford to spend more on petrol whilst maintaining their margins. Believe it or not Citroen van leasing has come out on top this year in terms of popularity, largely due to the high miles per gallon figures they offer. LDV van leasing is also up their with the most popular choices as their reliability is well respected in many industries.