Supporting Human Resources in delivering value to the organisation
The company car is one of the most valuable, high profile and emotive employee benefits – a key component of an eligible employee’s total reward package. Equally, for those who use their own vehicle on organisational business, the car can be an issue – and for the employer too! At Leasedrive, we take the pain out of fleet management and let you get on with what you are best at – adding value to your organisation.
Below are just some elements of fleet management we can take care of on your behalf.
Duty of Care Responsibilities
Risk management is now a major issue at boardroom level given the greater onus on organisations to meet their duty of care responsibilities towards their employees while driving on company business.
Organisations need to be on top of current legislation in order to meet these duty of care responsibilities, the two main ones being the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the UK Corporate Manslaughter (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) and Corporate Homicide (Scotland) Act 2007.
The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 requires employers to ensure, as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of all full and part-time workers at work. The Act covers all work-related journeys including drivers in company vehicles, using their own cars or vans for business use, temporary drivers, freelance drivers and agency or contract workers. Failure under the Act can see company directors and senior management face large fines and even possible prison sentences.
Under the UK Corporate Manslaughter (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) and Corporate Homicide (Scotland) Act 2007, it is possible for a company to be prosecuted as the result of failings by senior management to ensure the safety of their ‘at work’ drivers. The Act makes it much easier to prosecute organisations for manslaughter following a work-related death, than previous legislation, and can lead to substantial fines.
We take care of the legislative minefield by pro-actively managing risks associated with ‘at work’ drivers through our DutyOfCare:Manager system. We not only ensure that your organisation meets its duty of care responsibilities but can save you money on lost man hours and on costs estimated by Driving for Better Business magazine to average over £500 per vehicle per year.
Grey Fleet Management
The grey fleet is a ticking time bomb for many organisations. Many have little or no control over their grey fleet, those privately-owned vehicles used by employees while ‘at work’. And worst still, many grey fleets are larger than many organisations assume, having grown as a result of eligible employees taking ‘cash’ rather than a company car.
A grey fleet makes it more difficult for HR to ensure its organisation meets its basic duty of care responsibilities and corporate social responsibilities (CSR).
For organisations, there are three main reasons for tackling grey fleet – health and safety, cost reduction and the environment.
Paying grey fleet drivers to use their own vehicles may not make financial sense for an organisation, especially if they have many grey fleet drivers covering high mileages.
Inevitably, the majority of grey fleet vehicles are older than company car vehicles and therefore are higher polluters. For example, in the public sector, the average age of a privately-owned vehicle used on public sector business is 6.7 years old, compared to the average age of a company car of around 2.5 years based on the current trend of replacing company cars every 48 months.
Many responsible organisations are taking steps to encourage cash takers back into company cars and introducing attractive salary sacrifice car schemes, while others are engaging with professional fleet management companies to streamline checks and have proper audit trails in place. Whichever route you decide to follow, we can help.
Fit for Purpose
In the event that you decide to allow employees to use their own vehicles for work purposes then, as part of your duty of care responsibilities, you need to ensure that all employees’ privately-owned vehicles are ‘fit for the purpose’ for ‘at work’ journeys and that employees are capable of fulfilling the trips. By ‘fit for the purpose’, we mean that vehicles are roadworthy, properly maintained, have a current MOT where applicable, and are taxed and insured for business use. Be warned, this is not always the case!
We have years of experience managing grey fleet drivers on behalf of clients and can implement proper checks and audits.
Equally, where employees are eligible for a company car, we can ensure that their choice list encompasses vehicles appropriate for their line of work and are properly maintained.
Salary Sacrifice - mycar
Salary sacrifice as a component of employee remuneration is increasing in popularity. As part of the flexible benefits offer, it helps employers increase the perceived value of an employee’s total reward package and allows employees to tailor their remuneration to suit their lifestyle.
The principle aim of salary sacrifice is to make the whole remuneration package more attractive and tax advantageous to the individual at, generally, no cost to the employer.
If you are new to salary sacrifice company car schemes, you need to choose an experienced provider to ensure the benefits of the scheme far outweigh any potential drawbacks. As a way of helping an employer meet its goals of providing a ‘one size fits one’ rather ‘one size fits all’ total reward package at little or no cost to the organisation, salary sacrifice ticks all the right boxes while also helping the employer to meet its Corporate Social Responsibility objectives.
With the current pressure to freeze salaries or keep increases to an absolute minimum, salary sacrifice provides a creative way to enhance the total remuneration package in the eyes of the employee at no additional cost to the employer and as a tax-efficient scheme for the employee, saving them money.
While salary increases and bonuses are not a given, retention of talent is still vitally important. Adopting a more creative approach to total remuneration separates the best employers from the rest.
Click here for further information about our market-leading mycar Salary Sacrifice scheme.
Affinity Schemes
A further way for HR to motivate employees and increase their loyalty to the organisation is to offer similar fleet incentives to partners and other family members. Through affinity schemes, employees and their immediate family can lease cars at discounted prices thanks to the bulk purchasing power of the employer.
As with salary sacrifice schemes, affinity schemes cost the employer little but in the current tough economic environment can mean a great deal to an employee, enabling their hard-earned salary to go further and making working for your organisation that much more attractive.
As we said, the company car is one of the most valuable, high profile and emotive employee benefits. Ensuring that your company car, salary sacrifice and affinity schemes offer the widest choice possible, are competitive in the current market place and are run smoothly can remove a major headache for hard pressed HR departments.
Our reputation at Leasedrive is built on delivering the highest quality bespoke vehicle management service available in the industry. Our vision is to become the UK's leading provider of premium fleet services – not just be the best fleet provider, but the best by far.
Outsourcing your fleet management needs to us will not only allow you to concentrate on adding value to your organisation but ensure that you win the ‘war for talent’ by attracting and retaining the best employees for your organisation, who in turn can add value to your business.
