My Ideal Christmas Present

Technorati Tags: Fun , Sports Car , Fleet Policy

I noticed the local garden centre has started preparing for the festive season (cue the groans and 'commercialisation' comments). 

Well I just got excited again about one Christmas morning waking up to  having a car on my drive which I can use for fun just like the Caterham.

The top of the range CSR hits 0-60 in 3.1 seconds wow!! Whilst you can get a more basic Classic 1.4 for less than £13,000.

I'm pretty sure with all the talk of Health & Safety that I won't be driving my fun car to work!! I might just have to hope for a track day - hint hint!!

Driver Briefings

I've literally just put the phone down to a friend of mine who's been involved in a minor scrape in the hire car provided to them by the company she works for.

The brief yet eye-opening conversation centred around the fact that she had never had any kind of introduction to driving for the company she works for. Therefore at this moment I can imagine a bit "thank goodness she's ok we could have got in trouble" amongst the management team.

The scenario:

Lots of young, keen and willing staff on short term employment contracts PLUS appointments all over the UK.

Starbucks is covered some mornings by the boss yet the hire cars are the cheapest out there.

My impression is that the company my friend works for is struggling to plan the transport, scrimping on rentals and not informing staff of what to do in simple situations like a 'scrape', puncture or other minor fault.

The solution: When new staff start, check the driving licences, ensure they are covered under insurance and produce some kind of driver handbook for them to refer to, keeping a copy in the office as well.

Even better if the possibility of causing distress to the staff doesn't encourage change maybe with a bit more planning they could look in to providing better cars over the longer term by speaking to me! I guess money talks!

Yet more safety concerns

Daily rental group Enterprise have released research showing that over half of SME's allow employees to use their own car for business use.This is bordering on dangerous ground when it comes to Duty of Care issues as employers have a responsibility to ensure their drivers are using vehicles which are 'fit for purpose'.

If on occasion you are tempted to allow your employees to go out in their own cars you should treat them as you do your Company Car drivers.

• 
  
  Is the vehicle fit for purpose i.e motorways, building sites etc


• 
  
  Are they insured for business use?


• 
  
  Have you checked their licence and insurance?

More information can be found in this document - we have plenty of hard copies if you would like us to forward it on to you.

If your staff are frequently on the move in their own vehicles it may be in your interest to look at getting a 'pool car'. Keep it on the premises to rake back all the VAT and ensure that all your staff have access to a safe, reliable vehicle during office hours.

People meeting People

I've just read an interesting article about small businesses requiring full account management over web-based solutions being offered by the large corporates. As we deal with many of these large Funding companies on the behalf of our clients, we have yet to find an offering that replaces good, old fashioned, independent advice and assistance. In fact the quotes from the article come from one of our funding partners- Network Vehicles.


This makes a whole lot of sense, just like any product or service from web-design to PR, IT to Telecoms the average business owner places the order with the people who help take their problems away. The phone will always have a place with us (as will meetings) - do you think you could procure for your business purely online?