If you run a business that requires yourself or the majority of your staff travelling, then it probably makes sense to either buy or hire company cars. This means that staff will not have use their own cars for trips and therefore, fuel and mileage can be monitored by the business. A business’s fleet may be made up of HGVs, vans or cars depending on the business purpose. However, there are a number of factors that you should consider when making the decision about company cars. These include:
Size
Before investing in a fleet, it’s important to consider what size you will need. By size we mean, do you require heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) for transporting large loads of materials, products or machinery? Or perhaps you simply need a fleet of cars or vans for business meetings or light goods. The benefit of smaller company cars is that they are easier to drive and typically use less fuel. However, if have a fleet of HGV drivers, they will require an HGV license.
Purpose of the car
Will you be using the company car solely for business use or personal too? This is important because if you require it for personal use too, you probably won’t want to be driving daily in a van or HGV. Therefore, a car may be more efficient if your business trips don’t require carrying large loads of goods.
Fuel cards
When operating a fleet, it makes sense to use fuel cards as well. Fuel cards are no extra cost to businesses, they just make the admin side of things more efficient! Each driver within the fleet can receive a fuel card to use when filling up their vehicles at filling stations. This means that driver won’t have to use their own personal method of payment and avoids having to hold onto receipts due to online management systems.
Buy or lease
Businesses can lease company cars by providing a small upfront payment followed by monthly payments. This means that they don’t actually own the vehicle therefore, if it receives damage, you might incur extra costs. Buying company cars is more expensive upfront however, businesses have complete control and freedom with them. For example, if you no longer needed the car, you could sell it on without any hassle.
Fuel type
Years ago, when business bought company cars, it was a simple choice between diesel or petrol. In 2021, we now have electric cars which are great for the environment. These simply are powered purely through charging the car battery and have a limited mileage range. So, if you’re looking to reduce your carbon footprint, electric cars are the way forward as they become increasingly popular.
If you have recently invested in company cars, why not enquire about fuel cards to make your fleet run more smoothly? Fuelcards.com are a leading fuel card supplier in the UK and Ireland and help many business fleets. Get in touch today to see what we can do for your business.