COMPANY CARS
Government legislation and fuel prices affect car policy
More than half of companies claim that government legislation such as the Corporate Manslaughter Act and CO2-based vehicle taxation has put a strain on their business.
The findings result from a recent survey by Lex/YouGov examining the opinions of financial directors regarding the impact of Budget 2008 legislation on fleet and UK business. One of the main complaints was that financial directors, controllers and chief financial officers did not feel that they received adequate notice from the government for implementing the changes to duty of care and corporate manslaughter, as well as changes in CO2-based vehicle taxation.
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The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, which came into force in April this year, makes it easier for employers to be prosecuted should one of their drivers have a fatal accident. Despite this, the report shows that only 47% of respondents reported that their company had policies or procedures in place to ensure that they met their duty of care responsibilities to employees in light of the new legislation.
Similarly, despite the focus on green issues, the report found that almost half of respondents (42%) have no intention to make vehicles more environmentally friendly over the next six months and 57% did not think that making their fleet greener would attract new business.
Fuel price problems
The problem of rising fuel prices is also posing a problem for financial directors, with more than a third (34%) claiming that if the fuel price hits £2 a litre, they will be forced to make redundancies.
Want to know more?
To receive a copy of the Lex/YouGov report, contact James Lambert, head of PR at Lex, tel: (+44) 7826 875371 or email: james.lambert@lex.co.uk.
Lex owns a fleet of over 250,000 cars and vans. More than 20,000 businesses across the UK, including two thirds of FT-SE 100 companies, “trust it to provide motoring and vehicle services”. The company is the UK's largest contract hire provider of company cars and vans. For more information visit www.lex.co.uk.