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Drivers are like kids with no responsibility when it comes to their cars, which is why they won't give them up or grow up, writes The Insider
Sometimes I feel like a headmaster at a boarding school. All my drivers are living in hermetically sealed fantasy, automotively speaking, the true nature of which will only be exposed once they leave the company car bubble and try to go motoring in the real world. Some won't make the transition, I know it.
I know it's always been that way. No need to shop around for insurance, no need to queue for tax in the Post Office, no call to budget for fuel, certainly no need to haggle down the dealer.
But now even the second car is being bought through the company in so-called affinity schemes. You'll have heard of them - schemes that compete with broker websites to pass on dealer discounts to company employees. The finance is arranged, even the maintenance if they so wish. Just parcel out another chunk of money every month back to the company and all is taken care of. All operated by the nice fleet headmaster. Be good, don't speed too much, don't crash and everything will be fine.
I worry for them all. How will they cope on the outside? I picture these competent men and women, going out and paying full price at Citroen dealerships. Being quoted extremely unhappy by insurance companies who can't see any evidence of a no-claims history. I had to help my uncle buy his car, a Renault Scenic, because I know he would have paid full price. This an intelligent man who worked in sales, but because he'd never bought a new car in his life (company cars from the first Morris 1100 to the last Volvo 850), he accepted the sales patter as genuine friendship. I saved him £2500, as anyone with a car-buying history would have done.
“Ever since companies realised they could squeeze round Harold Wilson's 1960s incomes policy by handing out free cars instead of illegally raising wages, their employees have continued to pass on their motoring responsibilities to us, the fleet managers.” |
The Insider |
It's the biggest reason why the company car will never die. Ever since companies realised they could squeeze round Harold Wilson's 1960s incomes policy by handing out free cars instead of illegally raising wages, their employees have continued to pass on their motoring responsibilities to us, the fleet managers.
Company cars will have to be substantially more expensive to run than private cars before they'll give them up. And why should they? I wouldn't. But, as always happens when responsibility is handed over, there's a feeling of freedom that usually gets out of hand. Jones! I said no running in the hall! And I've told you before about speeding on the M25!
The Insider is a fleet manager with years of invaluable experience
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