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01/04/05 Fleet News - Car hire reduces high–risk gamble
Increasing duty of care warnings are failing to stop some firms gambling on staff using their own cars for work without checking the vehicles are fit for the road.
Most companies still allow their staff to use their own cars for company business. But if a member of staff was involved in a fatal accident and it was found the car they were using was unfit in some way – for example it had no MOT or insurance – the company could face prosecution. In the worst-case scenario, it could result in court proceedings and the company’s reputation being damaged beyond repair by the bad publicity.
A sobering thought, particularly when there is a simple alternative on offer – the use of a daily rental car. Many company directors may immediately baulk at such an idea, considering it costly and unnecessary, but you cannot place a price on employees’ lives. As Tony Donnelly, chief executive of Goodwood Rental, explains: “The most important consideration for any employer is the peace of mind which comes with knowing that employees are driving safety and legally. Employers have a duty of care to ensure that the vehicles their staff are driving are safe and roadworthy – and that employees are equipped and able to drive them.”
As well as ensuring employers are within the law when it comes to at-work driver safety, rental companies also say their services are flexible and that hiring a vehicle is cost-effective with fleets being offered competitive prices. Mark Brooker, sales and marketing director at Europcar UK, said: “Car rental is certainly a viable option for many companies when it comes to corporate manslaughter and not just those with a large budget. With daily hire rates now extremely competitive, using a rental company has never made more sense.”
Brooker added: “Let’s say a sales manager has to drive from London to Manchester and back, clocking up 400 miles. If you are paying just 25p per mile to private car users, that journey has already cost you £100. Hiring a car for a day would cost you, on average, £45 per day for a Mondeo-type car including insurance and VAT. Petrol should cost no more than £25 so already money is saved and companies are safe in the knowledge that, should anything happen, they’re completely covered.”
