This is where you’ll find all of our blogs, articles, insights and general musings around the world of business vehicle leasing, purchasing and management.
Whilst our amazing NHS works tirelessly on the frontline fighting the coronavirus (COVID-19) disease head on, most of the rest of us are doing our part to keep the spread at bay by remaining at...
The number of the UK's company cars per se is unarguably reducing and stood at around a million vehicles at Lex Autolease's most recent count, but the overall number of 'fleet' vehicles is growing and has likely exceeded fifteen million. This is primarily down to the trend in employees opting out of BIK-heavy company cars and either buying, financing or leasing personal vehicles or continuing to run their existing 'grey fleet' cars.
Interest in buying and leasing hybrid vehicles continues to grow amongst company car drivers seeking to reduce their benefit in kind (BIK) tax liability or avoid the 4% diesel surcharge, fleet managers striving to enhance their organisations' environmental standings, and scheme opt-out cash allowance-takers; but deciphering the jargon and lingo can be confusing.
The advent of the 2018/19 tax year saw the 3% diesel surcharge rise to 4%, which might not seem much in itself, but against a backdrop of increasingly punitive measures by HMRC, CO2 re-categorisation as a result of WLTP pushing many models up a band, and the Government's recent dilution of the Plug-in Car Grant (PiCG) to ironically exclude hybrids and benefit only electric cars, every pound matters to company car fleets.
Not every small and medium-size business has a specialist fleet management provider like Vehicle Consulting caring for their at-work drivers and company car and van fleets, the role often handled part-time by someone in HR or finance, or by the business owner.
As well as welcoming in the latest '68 number plates, last month also marked a much more serious change in the world of cars and vans. Acronyms are easily missed but the four-lettered abbreviation WLTP, standing for Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure, has been having quite an impact on individual personal contract hire (PCH) car leasing customers and fleets alike.
