Businesses want more vehicle solutions than just company cars

According to a report from vehicle leasing company Arval, interest is growing from businesses looking to provide vehicle solutions to their entire employee base including those not entitled to a company car.

The report finds that employers increasingly want to offer a broader mix of vehicle solutions to more employees – and that a range of products including personal lease and salary exchange can effectively meet this demand.

Richard Cox, Fleet Consultant at Arval, said: “Many businesses are looking for ways to improve their benefits offering to employees but at zero or little cost. Extending vehicle provision is an excellent solution to this need, especially as a wider range of product offerings are becoming available right across the market. It is now possible to provide a car solution for just about any corporate setting.”

He added that this approach was also changing the mix of stakeholders getting involved in the fleet conversation.

At the same time, Richard said, offering modern vehicles to employees had spin-off benefits, including a reduction in the managerial difficulties surrounding grey fleet usage and improved environmental performance.

“In offering new, or nearly new, vehicles alongside maintenance and insurance packages, employers can mitigate some of the duty of care issues that are inherent in grey fleet.

“Of course, putting employees into newer cars will almost always also create environmental benefits, with lower polluting cars and potentially wider adoption of hybrids and EVs. This is a definite win from a CSR point of view.”

Richard added that growth in this area was likely to become one of the fleet industry’s main drivers of growth in the 12 months ahead.

“Certainly, we are seeing much higher levels of interest from many different kinds of businesses and it could well develop into a key fleet trend in 2019.”