The site is designed to give Fleetworx’ domestic and international clients a ‘heads-up’ on the key costs and dynamics of their vehicle fleets, but also uniquely it also provides clear trends and projections that will assist in making strategic fleet decisions.

Graham Rees, managing director of Fleetworx and the architect of the system said “Our vision was to create an easy to access portal where our clients are able to pick up on the changes and trends relating to their vehicle fleet, that will ultimately support the tactical and strategic decisions that they will need to make.  In addition, we recognised the importance, for our customers, of being able to track the impact of their savings initiatives over time, so we have put in place an on-line monitoring system to enable them to see how they are performing against target”.

The main dashboard provides a useful comparison with previous periods and ‘traffic light’ indicators of movement to draw attention to the most significant changes.

The system is intuitive and allows sufficient drill down so as to enable identification of specific supplier costs and dynamics in any period, and for the most helpful comparisons to be made across periods. Information is displayed graphically, with detail available at every data-point, which can be downloaded ‘as you see it’ at any point.

AA president Edmund King welcomed Mr Osborne’s decision: “The chancellor has seen sense on this vital issue. Cash-strapped drivers will heave a heavy duty sigh of relief as current pump prices are close to the record high,” he said.
What is clear is that although families and business alike will benefit from the scrapping of the fuel duty rise, the underlying price of Brent Crude oil is rising exponentially, something the Chancellor cannot control.
Motoring journalist and TV presenter Quentin Wilson – also involved with the campaign group ‘FairFuelUK’ – welcomed the freeze in fuel duty, but insisted the campaign would continue.
“We are delighted the chancellor has been listening, and this vindicates our long campaign and in particular the epetition. A freeze is welcome, but we still feel that the chancellor should go further and reduce duty. A cut would be less money spent filling up and more released into the wider economy.”
Sources: BBC and Guardian.

A range of new active safety features, including cruise control that prevents you ‘rear-ending’ the car in front, a camera that monitors traffic in your ‘blind-spots’ and a ‘lane-assist’ system that adjusts your steering if you wander over the white lines, all promise to deliver enhanced safety for the occupants, however some might argue, will allow the driver to ‘switch off’ to the dangers around him too easily!

These features are by no means unique to Audi, but do perhaps give a clue to the direction of their thinking. We would not expect the take-up of these cost options to be substantial at this point but it is only a matter of time we would expect, for these to become part of the standard offering.

In the original case CESDL stated that NIC’s should not have become payable on cash sums paid to drivers for the business use of their private cars and a refund is due. HMRC suggested that the NIC’s were accounted for correctly and that no refund is due.

In the original appeal found in favour of CESDL, however the recent decision has overturned that judgement saying that in the original appeal the tribunal asked itself the wrong question and therefore came to the wrong conclusion.

The first tier tribunal concluded that lump sum payments made were not ‘earnings’ because of their lack of link to salary increases and pension contributions, therefore there was nothing to suggest that NIC’s should be due on these.

The second tribunal does not challenge this but states the case that there was also nothing to suggest that these payments were for ‘Relevant Motoring Expenditure’, within the meaning of the reg 22A(3) which requires that the payment is a “mileage allowance payment”; there being no link to the actual mileage travelled.  Hence the conclusion that the first tribunal had asked the wrong question and therefore come to the wrong conclusion.

Although on scrutiny of the legislation it is fairly obvious that there are technical points within this type of legislation that can be raised to challenge the type of payments made to employees and the relevant tax implications, as in this case, it is clear from this ruling that the legislation has carefully been drafted to be quite specific about what constitutes ‘motoring expenditure’ and the direct settlement of that.

It is also worth bearing in mind that if this case had succeeded, the cost to HMRC and therefore us, the tax payers, would have been immense, as as every ‘cash for car’ scheme operative clambered to reclaim NIC’s.

GE Capital, which operates 250,000 vehicles across Europe has committed to acquiring 25,000 electric vehicles worldwide by 2015.  Not surprisingly given their origin, GE are committed to electric vehicles as playing a large part in fleet solutions in the future.

Clearly GE has bold ambitions compared with it’s peers in the sector, however we must remember that 25,000 cars represents just 1.5% of GE’s total fleet, so there is still a long way to go.

The single largest gap in fleet data that Fleetworx finds when it looks at fleet costs, right across Europe, is the miles that people are driving on business.  Companies are blissfully unaware of the potentially fraudulent claims that may be being made for business miles that were private miles, and the fuel that may be going into other family members cars, courtesy of the company fuel card, and this is due to the fact that they have no mechanism to sense-check the behaviour of drivers.

On-line mileage capture systems, and the audit processes that support them are the best solution to this problem in our view, and we are now seeing more and more companies rolling out these control mechanisms across their fleets, where generally return on investment is significant, regardless of the fleet dynamics.

The question should be, not, can we afford to do this?, but can we afford not to do this?

Their findings show that over three-quarters of journeys undertaken lasted less than 20 minutes and only 2% used more than 50% of the batteries function. The trial also found that the typical private user had more than enough opportunity throughout their daily routine to keep the battery at full charge.
However, the reality is that fleet users – primarily sales reps – will either complete much longer distances over the course of a day or a higher volume of shorter journeys. With the average full battery recharge coming in it around 2 hours clearly this is not currently a viable option for fleet users – yet.
The ‘Green Energy Company’ Ecotricity is making great strides to facilitate this somewhat sluggish move into the electric market by recently installing its first ‘top-up zone’. In partnership with ‘Welcome Break’ service stations over the next 18 months they hope to install these charge points at all 27 service stations across the country.
For the EV market to gain a place alongside current fleet manufacturer / model incumbents’ vehicle range has to improve – which will only happen through research into battery technology. Secondly, the EV sector has to be on a financial par with its fuel powered competitors for fleet procurement managers to sit up and take note. Considering that it costs around 1p per mile to power an EV compared to 10p per mile in petrol cars, it is easy to see the long term benefits on fleet budgets as well as the environment.
Even though we do expect the EV market to eventually compete with its fuel powered cousins, do not expect it to be a reality for the foreseeable future.

Those who pursue car policies that respect this fact, will have a good chance of avoiding some of the taxation traps that exist within certain country tax legislation, where thresholds lurk to catch out the ill-informed, enforcing penalties in registration taxes, operational taxes, corporate taxes and social security contributions.

It’s not all bad news though, for the most part, for every penalty there is a corresponding reward for those who choose lower carbon vehicles. Real bottom-line savings await those who dare to push back the boundaries and position themselves ‘ahead of the curve’ in CO2 terms.

It is important to consider the total cost of ownership, including all of the tax positions when making your decisions on fleet; the cost of fueling and taxation is the biggest portion of the total cost when combined, so it is folly not to do so.  The challenge, when you run a European fleet, is to keep abreast of all of the changes in all of the markets; the information is out there but finding, digesting, developing policy and acting on it is another matter. Specialist help is at hand if you would like to contact us to discuss your specific fleet challenges.

The European Court of Justice (CJEU) has ruled that in some circumstances, benefits being offered in exchange for a salary sacrifice, will attract VAT as they are deemed a ‘supply of services’. Salary Sacrifice based company car schemes could in some cases, fall foul of this ruling, making employees liable for VAT on the benefit.

HMRC have issued some guidelines on the ruling. To go to the HMRC Briefing click this link.

The general feeling is that most salary sacrifice schemes, if structured correctly, should avoid the attraction of output VAT, however it is clear that professional, specialist guidance should be sought if you have a scheme in place and it has not been cleared by a qualified tax professional or if you are considering introducing such a scheme in the future.

Contact us if you have any concerns.

Started in the UK in 1997, Alphabet has experienced steady, but mainly organic, growth since then. The acquisition of ING Car Lease will provide a unprecedented growth for Alphabet, taking it into the ‘Top 3′ by volume in the UK leasing market at just shy of 100,000 vehicles.  Across Europe, the total fleet increase will be in excess of 60%, with more than 500,000 vehicles being under management of the combined business.

The deal is due to be completed before the year end, subject to the usual due diligence and regulatory approvals.

We would expect there to be a full consolidation of activities in the medium to long term, with the Alphabet business model being pursued in the main, although ING has a number of effective products and services, along with very capable staff, who will undoubtedly be, in part, transitioned across.

This can only serve to make Alphabet a stronger European business with greater leverage and a broader skills base in the European fleet competitive world.