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Leaseplan rolls out new monthly travel budget

Date: 29 August 2013   |   Author: Nick Gibbs

Leaseplan has launched an alternative to the company car or cash allowance that instead gives the employee a monthly travel budget and a range of travel options including trains, rental cars and even bicycles, all paid for by a special card.

Called Mobility Mixx it works like London's contactless Oyster card system and helps the fleet manager get a grip on travel costs by fixing a limit and providing a monthly breakdown.

"Mobility costs are usually one of the top three biggest expenses for a company," Leaseplan's strategy director Ian Marson told BusinessCar. "What they'd like is the whole thing brought under control."

Right now the scheme is only available in the Netherlands, but it could work well here, according to Marson. "We would love to do it in the UK," he said.

For it to happen, Leaseplan would need access to the UK transport network via an integrated payment system like Oyster.

The Government said earlier this it was looking to expand Oyster outside London, while Transport for London, which operates Oyster, said in June it would run back-office operations for travel companies that wanted to implement it. Right now Oyster cards can be used in London to pay for the Tube, buses and overground trains.

In the Netherlands, the scheme attracts no tax and can also be used as a fuel card and to pay for parking. Leaseplan earns a percentage of each journey cost, paid for by the travel companies.

According to Marson, the Dutch scheme is proving popular. "It works very well. We're finding that a lot of customers who would have taken the cash payment are using it."

The scheme exists separately to Leaseplan's fleet operations and many businesses are using it as a third alternative to the car or cash options, rather than as a replacement, he said.

For Leaseplan it works as a hedge against a drop-off in the lease business, according to Marson. "It's mitigating risk," he said.

Mercedes owner Daimler is another branching into mobility solutions alongside its traditional model and in Germany now offers a similar one-stop transport purchase scheme called Moovel, that includes access to its Car2Go car share scheme. Daimler has said that it plans to earn ?1bn (£860m) revenue from schemes such as Moovel and Car2Go by 2020.

This comes as Leaseplan launches a new telematics system, known as Leaseplan Telematics, which is powered by the RAC's technology and is available as four different packages that range from basic mileage and expenses compliance data to technology with the ability to advise on how to improve customer service. 



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