Choosing the right business fleet
Know how - Choosing your business fleet by Dom Threlfall
If your business is looking to make the move from using private cars and paying mileage to investing in a fleet, you can reduce the strain and confusion of making that move by following some simple advice.
Dom Threlfall, managing director of Pebley Beach - the Hyundai Fleet Business Centre for the M4 corridor - looks at some of the aspects you need to consider when choosing your business fleet.
Look at the bigger picture - and perhaps the bigger car
For almost all businesses, cost is the main deciding factor that will affect the make and model of fleet car available to you. However, the cost of fleet vehicles is more than the on the road price that you see.
You can often choose to either buy the vehicles outright or lease the cars, but you still need to be aware of the whole-life costs. This includes the cost of fuel, employers' National Insurance, depreciation and vehicle insurance - which in some cases can make up between 35-42% of whole-life cost.
To make things easier, Hyundai has a Whole Life Cost Comparator available atwww.hyundai.co.uk/fleet, which covers everything you need to bear in mind.
Taking all of this into account, a bigger car, such as a Hyundai i40 saloon, may be more expensive in the first instance and have higher fuel consumption and tax banding, but this is outweighed by having a proportionally higher residual value after three years than a smaller car and so overall would be a more economical choice.
The dreaded fuel bill
Estimating fuel bills can be a dark art as they depend on how an employee drives a car. Inefficient drivers are likely to use more fuel, generate greater levels of wear and tear and are more likely to be involved in accidents.
However, in general it is often the cleanest vehicles with the best mpg performance and lowest C02 emissions that deliver the most cost-effective solutions for any type of driver.
If you chose vehicles with low emissions then as well as helping to reduce fuel bills, you'll also benefit from lower tax bills and environmental benefits.
Swindon is also a pioneer for fuel cell technology. So if you're looking planning for the future and want not just low emissions but zero tailpipe emissions, Hyundai is planning to build 1000 ix35 Fuel Cell vehicles by 2015 for fleet.
Fifty Shades of Grey?
If you decide that providing your employees with company cars doesn't add up financially and instead to allow staff to drive their own vehicles for business, companies still hold a responsibility for the maintenance and road-worthiness of this 'Grey Fleet'.
Pebley Beach offers businesses special servicing packages that can be passed onto employees that will help remove some of the unknowns for fleet managers and Grey Fleet.
However, choosing your fleet doesn't require a PhD in maths in order to work out the costs - our Hyundai fleet managers are always on hand to guide you through the process and make sure you're clear on the different options available as well as the bottom line.""