Key factors in building a business fleet (and how flexi hire can help)

Sometimes, it can seem like there’s actually no right time to buy a new vehicle for your business fleet. Developing regulatory changes, industry news and a number of other factors can all play a big part in delaying your purchase, but this can prove to be a big problem if your employees still need to be working out on the road in the interim. Happily, that’s where flexi hire can prove to be such a useful option. Namely, it can provide your business with a useful stopgap vehicle, enabling you to continue normal day-to-day operations and giving you plenty of time to make the final decision. Here, we detail some of the major considerations that might give you pause for thought when buying a new company vehicle, and how flexi hire can help in the meantime.

Adhering to emissions standards

Global concern surrounding the world’s climate has been growing in recent years, leading to gradually more strict regulations that govern the amount of acceptable emissions in modern vehicles. The Euro 6 regulations are a prime example of these - and since so many of our cars are imported from Europe here in the UK, it means we’ll still be affected by them even after Brexit. Even closer to home, national initiatives like London’s Ultra Low Emissions Zone is also imposing increasingly sharp restrictions on older vehicles - and cities like Manchester and Leeds are broadly expected to follow suit.

That means if you operate in big cities like London or Manchester - or you find your employees regularly travelling through it - you may well be considering holding off buying an older vehicle in favour of purchasing a new one that does meet the latest emissions regulations, as an older vehicle could end up costing you more down the line. In cases like these, flexi hire is a helpful option to continue business operations as normal in the meantime.

Staying on the right side of other regulatory changes

Closely related to the subject of emissions, the government has sometimes been known to make a sharp U-turn on certain issues - for instance, its abrupt U-turn on diesel a few years ago. It can be a big enough task weighing up all the various tax costs associated with certain vehicles, but it makes it all the more tricky when it looks like those tax rates might be about to change for whatever reason. The issue in flux might not necessarily always be tax, of course, but either way the uncertainty can cause you a headache when you’re trying to work out what business vehicle to buy next. Once again, if you’re waiting for regulatory dust to settle, flexi hire for cars or vans give you the means to keep your fleet moving as you keep your eyes peeled for any official or industry announcements.

Testing out fuel economy

So we’ve discussed official rules and regulations, but (thankfully) they might not always be the overriding factors in your decisions. However, fuel economy is definitely always going to be a key consideration. If you’ve got your sights set on a specific car, truck or van, it’s not necessarily an easy task to judge its fuel economy offhand, especially since the manufacturer’s estimates rarely match up precisely with its ‘real world’ fuel economy. So in order to reliably work it out it’s normally necessary to do a bit of literal road testing first.

This is where flexi hire can provide a whole new range of benefits. If you’re considering a similar model of car or van to those we offer in our flexi car hire or flexi van hire services (such as a VW Crafter or a Citroen Berlingo), trialling one of our vehicles can be a useful benchmark in helping you estimate the actual fuel economy of your prospective new purchase.

Experimenting with new roles and company requirements

It may be the case, of course, that you’re expanding your fleet with a view to enhancing its versatility, giving your fleet additional capabilities as a whole. For example, the Citroen Berlingo van is a popular model for tradesmen, as it’s a handy way to transport tools and materials to each job site. However, as a small van, it’s also capable of making small or valuable deliveries, while often being easier to navigate around big cities or enclosed spaces than one of the bigger vans.

In this way, flexi hire is another useful way of trialling a new vehicle, testing it out in a variety of different roles and finding out how best it performs to the demands of your business. You may even ultimately decide not to buy a new vehicle at all - with flexi hire, you can continue ‘rolling over’ your contract indefinitely, as often as you’d like!

That’s just a few of the benefits that flexi hire can provide - for a more complete list, check out our post on the advantages of flexi hire! Or, if you’re ready to hire a vehicle right away, we’ve got no shortage of options for you here at Intack Self Drive. You can look at our main flexi hire categories here, or if you’ve got any questions or need any advice, feel free to give us a call on 01254 57811 - we’re here to help!