Fewer than one in five fleets ask their leasing company for advice on safety, model specifications and costs, new research has suggested.
According to leasing giant Arval, the majority (61%) of fleets turn to manufacturers for advice instead.
The findings come from the 2017 edition of the firm’s Corporate Vehicle Observatory Barometer, which covers responses from 3,847 fleets.
Websites are the second-most-popular source of information for fleets (38%), followed by specialised publications like BusinessCar (19%) and then leasing companies (17%).
Fleets also take advice from bloggers (7%), social media (5%) and apps (5%).
Shaun Sadlier, head of Arval’s Corporate Vehicle Observatory in the UK, said he was surprised by the findings as his company “goes to a lot of effort” to produce impartial information for fleets.
“Motor manufacturers rarely provide intelligence of this type simply because it is not the business they are in. Companies like Arval are, after all, experts in fleet management, and this type of data and insight is our forte,” he said.
“Easily accessible digital information, tools and calculators have become really important for modern fleet managers. That’s why we have created free resources like Arval Fleet Toolbox and our award-winning Fleet Toolkit. Both provide access to rich interactive information at any time of the day.”
Meanwhile, just over half of fleets have said they knew about tax changes in April affecting company cars and cash allowances.
According to findings from Arval published last week, 54% said they knew about the changes, while the leasing giant said awareness is very much dependant on the fleet size.
While the majority (77%) of larger fleets – defined by Arval as those with more than 50 vehicles on their books – said they were aware of the changes, this drops to 44% of medium fleets (10-49 vehicles) and 35% of smaller fleets (1-9 vehicles).
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