Fleet Support Group: An interview with Geoffrey Bray in January 2009 – page 2
Q: How can Fleet Support Group’s RiskMaster help?
A: Businesses that pro actively manage their drivers – those who drive company-provided vehicles as well as their own cars – will manage cost.
RiskMaster is a web-enabled occupational road risk management programme that measures individual driver compliance with a firm’s at-work driving safety policies.
Employees who drive a company car, drive their own car on business or are occassional drivers are granted a Permit to Drive following a DVLA licence check. An online driving ‘test’ is then used to profile drivers as ‘low’, ‘medium’ or ‘high’ risk with the assessment used as the basis for any driver training, including on-the-road. Vehicle maintenance records, insurance details, MoT and VED records, and any data on crashes and motoring offences are also fed into the system.
As information is supplied, it is analysed by the RiskMaster system that point scores a driver’s data. If points rise above a preset level, management is alerted. So a driver can qualify for a permit, or a temporary permit, or be denied.
The system creates an individual and comprehensive Driver Operating Life Report from which data is used to continually assess individual drivers in their driving-at-work activity.
That analysis is a continual process so each driver has a Driver Operating Life Report and each driver is simultaneously measured against individual employer’s own specific parameters that have been pre-fed into the system.
Evidence from our RiskMaster users, which include organisations as diverse as WHSmith, Dun and Bradstreet and the West Bromwich Building Society, suggests that Permit to Drive provides major safety benefits; financial savings; demonstrates social responsibility towards other road users; and a legally-recognised audit trail.
Q: What impact will greener, more fuel-efficient vehicles, and hybrid vehicles have on the fleet sector?
Fleet managers must establish a mindset among company directors and drivers that low emission vehicles bring fuel economy and financial savings.
The Government’s motoring taxation strategy has become well established in recent years – rewarding owners and drivers of low emission vehicles with lower tax bills in comparison with owners and drivers of high emission vehicles.
The link between vehicle emissions and tax will be further underlined with the April introduction of new capital allowance rules based, which are allied to vehicle emission levels.
In recent years, the problem has been that HR departments have, in many cases, been allowed to determine fleet policy based on the demands of staff recruitment and retention. Where such strategies have been allowed, costs have risen.
Companies that are focused on saving money will already have embraced a ‘green’ strategy. This means introducing ‘low’ emission vehicles – typically below 160 g/km of CO2, which is the benchmark set by the forthcoming capital allowance reforms.
However, with a wider range of ‘low’ emission models being launched by vehicle manufacturers on a regular basis there is no reason why fleets cannot see their average CO2 figures tumble to 140 g/km, 130 g/km and even below 120 g/km, with some major financial savings accruing.
Q: What effect will the April introduction of emissions based capital allowance rule changes have on the industry?
A: The reform of capital allowance rules should have a major impact on fleet policies, as outlined above.
In simple terms, fleets that persist in owning or leasing cars with CO2 figures above 160 g/km will typically see their operating costs rise. However, other factors need to be taken into account including: the cost of finance, whether VAT can be recovered and the corporation tax rate.
As a result, company car policy reviews should already be well underway. A failure to recognise the change will, almost certainly, result in companies paying the consequences.
The wholesale changes to the current corporate taxation regime will have a major affect on the tax relief organisations can claim each year for the depreciation of their vehicles. There is also a major shift in how companies can offset the cost of leasing cars against their tax bill.
Industry figures suggest that employers that do not review their policies could well find the depreciation and funding elements of their fleet costs increase by up to 15% as a direct result of these changes, whether they lease or buy.
With company car driver benefit-in-kind tax, fuel scale charges and Vehicle Excise Duty already linked to cars’ CO2 emissions – and fuel economy improving the lower the emissions – significant financial savings are available if companies do the maths and choose the optimum funding route as well as low CO2 emitting vehicles.
Company fleet managers need to look at the wholelife costs of their vehicles, concentrating on emissions and not list price.
Q: Have the car manufacturers responded with a sufficient variety of fleet-friendly vehicles?
A: The global focus on climate change coupled with tough new European Union rules on vehicle emissions due to be phased in from 2012, mean that vehicle manufacturers are accelerating the production of ultra-low emission vehicles.
Low emission, fuel-sipping vehicles are being brought to the marketplace almost daily by all carmakers.
They are using cutting-edge technology that combine weight-saving measures, engine downsizing, intelligent energy management and enhanced aerodynamics, among others, to significantly enhance economy and reduce emissions.
Meanwhile, as witnessed by the range of new models unveiled at the recent North American International Auto Show in Detroit, new hybrid cars will soon be appearing in showrooms, alongside electric cars from mainstream manufacturers.
The vehicles are all suitable for fleet use, depending on the applications they are put to.
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