FOCUS FEATURE FACTFILE
• Roughly three million new cars are registered for use in the UK each year.
• The number of cars on UK roads is rising by around 600,000 a year.
• Over half of new car registrations (about 54%) are company vehicles but fewer than one-in-ten on the road (about 8.5%) are registered to firms.
• About six million used cars change keepers a year – approximately a sixth of the cars on UK roads.
• Recent trends show sales of vans and motorbikes rising at a faster rate than cars.
‘Employers may wish to offer defensive driving courses for employees who drive for a significant part of their roles’
not be happy to see a sales rep turn up in their car park in a petrol-guzzling 4x4. According to Lex Autolease, a key problem is
understanding who in a company is responsible for managing grey fleet drivers, with the grey fleet usually falling somewhere between human resources and the fleet department, with usually a line manager left to enforce the rules for his or her team. Before sending staff out in their own cars, Qdos
Consulting recommends employers should ensure the employee is fit to drive, that the vehicle has appropriate business-use insurance, that a copy of the driver’s licence, the vehicle’s MoT and insurance are held on record, that the vehicle has been serviced and maintained and has road- legal tyres. “To complement their approach to meeting their duty of
care obligations, employers may wish to offer defensive driving courses for employees who drive for a significant part of their roles,” said David Barratt, Human Resources and Training Business Partner at Qdos Consulting. He added: “Employers should also remember that anything
they do for an employee using a company-owned or leased vehicle must also be offered to grey fleet employees.”
• Despite huge Government incentives and a massive percentage rise (over 250% in 2014), sales of alternative-fuel cars remain almost flat- lined compared with those of more traditional vehicles at well under 20,000 a year.
• 29% of road deaths in the UK have been found to be ‘death at work’ incidents.
WHO ARE THE BIGGEST USERS OF GREY FLEET? The Government, local authorities and the NHS are among the biggest operators of grey fleets. Fleet News – the journal of fleet management - put
Freedom of Information requests in to 434 local authorities, not including parish and town councils, between July and December last year, to establish what they spent on grey fleet mileage. Derbyshire County Council, the paper reported, admitted
to the second highest annual bill at £5.2m. Grey fleet usage is particular prevalent in the public
sector, with more than half (57%) of all business travel undertaken by drivers in their own private cars, according to reports quoting the former Office of Government Commerce (OGC), now the Efficiency Reform Group (ERG). Together, UK local authorities reimbursed over £275m
private car use business expenses last year, with 76.3% of the cost (£209m) being met by councils in England.
The fleet management principles are the same whether it’s your own vehicles or those belonging to your staff.
business network February 2016 31
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