As more company cars appear in business carparks, the additional stress of managing them for the appointed HR or finance teams can be detrimental to the company owner’s staff. We are seeing 3 types of reasons for having a company car ;
- Tool of trade eg a sales employee or engineer who is constantly out seeing clients;
- Perk car – cars given to mainly important office based staff as a perk to keep staff retention high; and
- Salary sacrifice – cars taken up by other employees through an internal car salary sacrifice scheme.
With vehicles having list prices of £10k to over £100k, these are expensive items, and can be costly to repair if they aren’t looked after properly by the employee. So what safeguard should employer’s be implementing before the carpark becomes a wild west of unmanaged company cars?
A bespoke company car policy is a great idea for all companies to implement. It’s a commitment by an employee to show a responsible duty of care for using their company vehicle and statistics show that there is lower end of contract charges and generally less incidents of misuse of company vehicles.
Things to highlight are :
- holding a current full driving licence and having them checked annually
- vehicle health checks ie tyres, service booking, etc
- driving fines and reporting penalty points
- no smoking or vaping in the vehicle
- not drinking under the influence of drink or drugs
- adhering to speed limits and the highway code
- what to do if you are involved in a road traffic incident
- cleanliness
- use of mobile phones
- company car tax recorded with HMRC
- vehicle tracking
- leaving employment
- vehicle misuse
- travelling abroad
- private fuel
- general wear and tear.
A well written policy that is provided to an employee before they take on the use of a company vehicle is ideal for both the employee and the employer.
Most of our clients are business clients, mainly with business contract hire leases, we can help with providing a company car policy template with all our business leases. Get in touch if you want to speak to one of our team on 028 9693 6363 or email info@everyvehiclelease.co.uk and entitle 'company car policy'.