Fleet Cars for Small to Medium Businesses: Top 10 Tips for A Cost Effective Car Fleet

We often get asked about our top tips for managing a cost effective business fleet here at Cars on Demand, so we thought we’d share with you some advice straight from the horse’s mouth.

In this week’s blog, Cars on Demand managing director and short term vehicle leasing specialist Paul Brown shares his advice on how to make sure your fleet of cars is working hard for your business.

1. Ensure your fleet leasing agreements are flexible to the needs of your business; rolling contracts and short term lease options can be ideal for small to medium size businesses that employ field sales teams or freelancers, as they often allow for more frequent vehicle changes and avoid becoming tied in to a long term lease.
2. Capitalise on tax and National Insurance savings; there are savings to be made on National Insurance contributions if your business uses leasing for small fleets of cars. The lower the C02 emissions of the cars you lease, in general the lower the NI payments you will make for your employees or business.
3. Consolidate your repair bills; rental charges, injury claims and uninsured losses could potentially increase the cost of an accident significantly. Most good business car leasing companies should be able to help you arrange specialist accident management – it could reduce the off road time of vehicles in your fleet by up to 60%.
4. Claim back the VAT; most VAT registered companies can claim back 50% of the VAT on any vehicles leased for business purposes. This can increase to 100% if the vehicle is used exclusively and only for business use.
5. Centralise accounts with fuel cards; if your employees buy fuel on different accounts for their business vehicles, or buy it themselves and claim back through expenses, this can become a time consuming and admin heavy task. Consider introducing a fuel card system to help to centralise costs.
6. Check your choice list; the type of vehicles available to employees has a big impact on their running costs of your overall business fleet. Try and choose vehicles based on their lifetime cost as opposed to cost per mile. An experienced leasing company should be able to help you analyse usage and recommend the most appropriate vehicle types.
7. Think about location; if you have sales teams or colleagues working in different areas of the country, consider whether they will be able to access the company providing your lease vehicles locally, so that any issues with their vehicle can be addressed as efficiently as possible.
8. Track the metrics; a well-managed business fleet management system will help you determine how much a vehicle costs per mile and how efficiently drivers are operating. It should be easy for you to find and check these figures regularly.
9. Stay one step ahead; the fleet marketplace is constantly evolving, so ensure you maintain contact with an expert that can update you on the latest developments and help maintain a productive fleet.
10. Outsource to the experts; many SMEs find it makes financial and practical sense. Call in the experts and make good use of a fleet management company’s industry and expert knowledge.

For any further information on managing a cost effective business fleet, please get in touch!