Fleets need to work on issues arising from an emerging “home working, home charging” model being created by the rise of electric vehicles and the effects of the coronavirus crisis, says FleetCheck.
The fleet software specialist says that a potentially important new subset of company car driver is emerging who now works largely from home and is set to choose an EV as their vehicle because of low benefit-in-kind taxation and other considerations.
Peter Golding, managing director, explained, “We’re seeing a new type of fleet user start to appear in small numbers who, in a matter of years, might become even become the typical fleet car driver. This is someone who last year probably covered 20,000 miles a year in a diesel company car but thanks to the coronavirus situation is probably next year going to halve that figure with video conferencing and intends to minimise their personal tax by choosing an EV.
“This emerging employee has some idiosyncrasies that create a number of issues fleet managers need to tackle, probably the most important of which is risk management.”
Especially, Peter said, watertight risk management policies needed to be adopted around home-based EVs thanks to their particular characteristics.
“These are vehicles that will rarely be seen by fleet managers on the company car park and there need to be auditable processes in place to ensure that they are regularly inspected for safety and general condition. Of course, this should already by happening for all your fleet vehicles but there is an argument that these home-based EVs are particularly vulnerable.”
