Still a dark cloud over grey fleet
How many of you out there check constantly for bald tyres on your vehicles? Or, ensure that your road tax is valid or needs renewing? If honest hands were to be raised, few hands would make the short journey and the rest would be parked on our laps. We are a driving nation; a country with over 30 million vehicles occupying our roads, with a large number of these unsafe to do so. With the spotlight now on companies who ‘encourage’ their employees to use their private vehicles for work, the grey fleet is about to have a head on collision with the authorities if procedures are ignored.
A recent survey by Total Motion, the independent fleet consultancy services, discovered that almost two out of three private vehicles driven on company business were not safe to be on the road – it is estimated that between one and three million privately-owned cars are used for work. More alarmingly, 60% of the private vehicles were not properly maintained, around a third were not insured. This is despite the fact a host of insurance companies will graciously extend cover for free for their customers who use their own cars for work.
"Most organisations will, on occasions, find it highly convenient to allow staff to use their private car for business travel," says Total Motion. "If they have no immediate pressure form their employer and insurer, why would they care or think about the implications? In terms of administration and cost, paying a fixed mileage allowance for the use of a private car is the simplest solution rather than providing pool cars or arranging a daily rental vehicle."
The survey aroused more concerns when researchers discovered that 52% of companies do not have a policy to check insurance details of their grey fleet vehicles. "Equally more worrying is the complete lack of company procedures to check that grey fleet vehicles are safe," continues Total Motion. "In 2007, we found a quarter of fleet managers said that roadworthiness of their grey fleet vehicles was a major concern. It is abundantly clear that there is a very thin line between awareness and action – if companies aren’t denying these discrepancies, then it’s as though they’re condoning them."
The Corporate Manslaughter Act, which came into affect in April this year, is one robust legislation that may appear ambiguous, but is very clear with its intentions. Under the new act, it is the organisation that will be targeted and prosecuted for a "gross failure in the management of health and safety that causes death". Rather interestingly, the statute will rectify a key defect in the present law (organisations could only be convicted of manslaughter if a single individual at the very top of a company was personally guilty) and now ensures proper accountability for "serious management failures".
This may be a whole new meaning to ‘laying down the law’, but a new, thick application is what’s required to force organisations to monitor their fleets.
"It is also clear that the safety issues raised by private cars are being completely neglected by businesses, so a legislation of this status is welcome," Total Motion adds. "Even when companies are introducing duty-of-care policies, they are failing to enforce them. I wouldn’t say it’s an incentive, but this addition to the existing law will certainly be a constant reminder to fleet managers." A reminder that will be staunchly reinforced by unlimited fines and publicity orders; making companies now sit up and take note.
Although the grey fleet may be under immense scrutiny, their drivers are in fact travelling fewer miles. This is good news in the sense that unqualified fleet vehicles remain off our roads, but, this is not happening due to the new legislation or pressure from vigilant companies; this is due to rising fuel costs. This and the failure of the government to increase the Approved Mileage Allowance Payments (AMAP) rates have been cited as the main factors behind the decrease in grey fleet business miles.
"Rising fuel prices have underlined the fact that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) AMAP rates – the cash allowances employers pay to their staff for using their own car for work – are failing to keep pace with drivers’ cost," says Paul Jackson, Managing Director of the Miles Consultancy. "Anecdotal evidence suggests that employees are becoming increasingly resistant to using their own vehicles, as they feel they are not being fairly compensated to do so."
Whizzgo are a vehicle rental company situated in the UK who are trying to alleviate the pressure off drivers and companies by offering a comprehensive fleet of vehicles. Their range is not only extensive, but cost effective and conscious of the environment. The rise of fuel prices and tax has hit the UK driver hard, so they provide cars that are both safe and ready for the road.
Drivers are faced with the fear of subsidising the costs of their travel themselves and employers are threatened by hefty fines and possible prison sentences. Never before has the grey fleet been so ‘grey’, but the dark cloud will soon dissipate if a few simple, but unavoidable procedures are followed.
Matthew Crick is a Brighton-based copywriter working here on behalf of Whizzgo. Whizzgo is the UK’s leading car rental company with a network of low emission cars located in towns and cities across the UK. You can also chose from pay as you go hire so you can save money on the move!
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