Do you have a grey fleet policy in place?

It’s pretty rare to find a company that doesn’t take the health and safety of their employees very seriously, and be quite rightly proud of doing so. But there are some areas where blind-spots can very easily develop – and grey fleets are a prime example. That’s why it’s such big news that a recent study by Arval Mobility Observatory found that a huge number of companies don’t have a grey fleet policy.

What’s happening?

We’ve talked about grey fleets before, but if you need a quick refresher, it’s essentially a term used to refer to employees using personal cars for work purposes. Any car that’s driven for business purposes (such as sales calls), but not a company car, can be considered part of a grey fleet. And that can open up quite a lot of problems, not least of which are legal and safety risks.

Arval’s key finding was that the majority of employers are failing to manage business use of employee-owned cars. In fact, the research found that 62% of companies don’t have any kind of grey fleet policy in place. Meanwhile, out of the remainder who do have any kind of policy, fewer than one in five (16%) have what they believe is a “comprehensive account” – in other words, a precedent for ensuring that grey fleet vehicles are maintained to a certain standard, and that there are procedures for what happens when there’s an accident.

Why does this matter?

In the words of one figure at Arval, if the issue of a grey fleet isn’t being properly accounted for within company policy, then not only does that increase the potential for road accidents to occur, but it could even result in managers and directors being held personally liable.

Essentially, a large proportion of this comes down to compliance. Company vehicles are subject to regular checks to ensure that they’re complying with minimum safety standards, and the company takes responsibility for ensuring they’re in good repair. With grey fleets, that line becomes blurred – the condition of the vehicle and the regularity of repairs is often deferred to its owner. So while the company may be happy to let the owner make that judgement call when it comes to the condition of the car, if it’s involved in a collision while on company business, then the company still runs the risk of being legally implicated.

Going from Arval’s findings, not everyone realises that employers do actually have a legal obligation under the Health and Safety at Work Act for any grey fleet vehicle to be verified as roadworthy and legal, and that it’s taxed and MOT’d. However, you’ll notice that even with those stipulations, there’s still quite a lot of wiggle room for fuzzy legal situations to develop – making it all the more crucial that companies have a clear grey fleet policy in place!

How can we help here at Intack Self Drive?

Easy. We have more than 50 years of experience to our name here at Intack Self Drive, having built our reputation on providing unrivalled service to private and commercial customers alike. We can provide cars for hire as part of our flexi hire service – all of which are demonstrably and stringently maintained to verifiable standards, sparing you from the worries of grey fleets and giving you all the peace of mind you need about compliance and certification.

There are also the additional benefits – for example, being able to choose from specific vehicles that you can handpick for the job at hand. That means no worrying about how to fit company stock in a personal car that might not have a lot of cargo space – you can use vans for transporting goods, minibuses for groups of people, and impressive saloons for sales calls where everything hinges on a good first impression. Greater choice is about more than just convenience – it’s safer, more efficient, and gives you more peace of mind.

And if you’re already looking for a hire vehicle for a specific job, then you’re in exactly the right place. Our extensive fleet comprises of more than 450 vehicles, including cars, vans, and minibuses. We offer both Flexi hire and daily hire options, so you can rent the vehicle for as long or as little as you need! Feel free to contact us at 01254 57811, and we'll be more than happy to help you in any way we can!