The full extent of the UK’s “grey fleet” is revealed in the most comprehensive report into private vehicles used for business.
The nation’s grey fleet comprises 14 million cars – 40 per cent of all vehicles on the road – and costs employers more than £5.5bn a year in mileage claims and car allowances.
Many are used in the public sector instead of council or government vehicles.
According to Getting To Grips With Grey Fleet, a new report produced by the Energy Saving Trust and commissioned by the British Vehicle Leasing and Rental Association, some 12 billion business miles are driven each year on Britain’s roads by employee-owned cars. The grey fleet describes the use of an employee’s own vehicle for business purposes. In return for using their own car, employees are reimbursed on a pence per mile basis.
Using government figures and data from real- life fleets, EST researchers were able to produce a profile of a typical grey fleet vehicle and compare it to other alternatives, including rental cars, car club vehicles and company cars. They found that the average grey fleet car was ‘exhausted’ – being older, more polluting and potentially more dangerous than its counterparts.
According to the report, Britain’s grey fleet is responsible for:
- Some of the oldest cars on UK roads, with an average age of 8.2 years
- 6 million tonnes of CO2 per year, the equivalent to the average annual emissions of 1.5 million cars
- 8,156 tonnes of NOx, a dangerous air pollutant and one of the main contributors to the UK’s air quality issues, equivalent to twice the emissions from Transport for London buses
- A significant portion of the £2.7bn costs associated with work-related road accidents
- £5.5bn-plus worth of potentially unmanaged costs from mileage claims and car allowances.
