A “triple whammy” means that fleets are in their biggest ever state of policy flux, says fleet software specialist FleetCheck.
The WLTP fuel and emissions measurement changeover, the “demonisation” of diesel and the lack of information about company car taxation after 2020 are creating a high degree of confusion and frustration, says Peter Golding, managing director at FleetCheck.
He said, “At any time, any one of these developments would have created quite a high degree of inconvenience for fleets but together, they create a real headache.
“Essentially, they make it very difficult for fleets to know which vehicles to acquire and operate. Will these cars measure up in terms of fuel consumption and CO2 once the switchover to WLTP is complete? Will they be affected by the ongoing shift of sentiment and Government policy affecting diesel? Will their drivers suddenly be hit with very high tax bills.
“There are currently a wide range of variables surrounding these questions. Some of the blame can be pointed in specific directions – the WLTP handover is unnecessarily messy, and the Government has no excuse for the time taken to resolve the 2020 tax question.
“However, none of this helps resolve the issues that fleets are facing. It is difficult to recall another time when fleet policy was in so much of a state of flux.”
Peter added that the solution being adopted by most fleets so far was simply to continue existing policies and wait to respond to developments as they occurred.