FOCUS FEATURE


Grey matter


There are more than 36 million cars and light vans registered in Britain. At any time, 14 million of them could be on the road in connection with work as so-called ‘grey fleet’ – private vehicles being driven for business. But encouraging employees to use their own cars for work has implications for employers. Deputy Editor ANDY HIBBERD has been looking at the complications of managing a grey fleet.


There are roughly three times as many ‘grey fleet’ drivers on UK roads as there are company car users, according to the RAC. National rental firm Lex Autolease claims there are nine


million private vehicles being used regularly for business with a further five million used only occasionally. Perhaps surprisingly, according to a BBC report citing AA


and RAC figures, the average individual mileage for work by grey fleet users is only about 700 a year. But if the 14 million grey fleet figure is correct, that still


amounts to a whisker under ten billion miles a year being driven by people in their own vehicles for either their own or their employer’s business. Given the low average mileages involved, the savings to


businesses of using grey fleet instead of pool or company cars can be huge. The cut-off point between paying for grey fleet and


providing a company car is considered to be about 10,000 miles a year, with a company car being the cheaper option above that threshold. With grey fleet, firms have no car purchase costs, no


maintenance charges, no insurance or car tax, no benefit- in-kind tax to calculate on the payroll, no capital purchase writing down allowances to work out, no parking or speeding tickets to pay or assign for payment once the driver responsible has been identified… “An employer may still have a hard time trying to


manage such employees in terms of mileage, driving safely and vehicle maintenance, however the same duty of care applies as it does for regular company vehicle drivers,” said Mark Stubbs, Health and Safety Training Business Partner at Chamber Patron Qdos Consulting. And the implications of failing to ensure that the grey


fleet is legal could be colossal, especially considering that a quarter of road crashes now involve someone driving for work. Failing to meet statutory obligations could leave an


employer facing a corporate manslaughter charge. “Remember, if a grey fleet driver is out on business, your


company could be liable for the associated costs if they were to have an accident and the employee is not insured appropriately,” said Mark. He added: “Employers should ensure they have


appropriate arrangements in place to ensure grey fleet drivers are suitably insured.” By providing company cars an employer remains in


30 business network February 2016


control of the fleet. With grey fleet, much of the control is handed back to


the employee but the responsibility and the duty of care still rests with the employer. The employer, for example, has a duty to meet the


Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the UK Corporate Manslaughter (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) and Corporate Homicide (Scotland) Act 2007. Health and Safety at Work legislation covers all work-


related journeys, including drivers in company vehicles, using their own cars or other vehicles for business use, temporary drivers, freelance drivers and agency or contract workers. It requires an employer to ensure that an employee is


licensed to drive (in one recent survey five out of a thousand drivers were found not to hold a licence for the vehicle they were driving), medically fit to drive and that the vehicle is road legal and suitable for purpose, ie, can it safely carry any items to be transported and is it compatible with the planned journey. Even with the risk resting with the


employer, Lex Autolease analysis found that about a quarter (26%) of grey fleet managers didn’t always check insurance cover on vehicles being used for work. More than one in ten (12%) said


they undertook only sporadic checks and eight per cent admitted they didn’t carry out any insurance checks at all. The recently-published results


of a survey into grey fleet insurance found that 20% of the certificates checked did not include business cover. Yet if an uninsured car were involved in a


crash while being used for work it could be the employer that would be held accountable and face a fine - potentially £100,000 or more – under Health and Safety law. Employers should also know that the car has a valid MoT


certificate, has been properly maintained, is free from defects and presents the proper image for the company. A firm working in the ‘green’ sector, for example, might


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