The company I have worked for 15 years recently moved to new premises which is kitted out with a changing room and shower, since then I have left my company car at home and ridden in to work taking advantage of the facilities , however last week I had a call from HR asking " do you ride to work everyday" yes I replied, I was then told use your car or lose it!!! Driven in today and still in a grump 😡

Give the company car back, take the allowance and buy yourself a runabout?

Can you just drive in occasionally? That's what I do.

Why do you need it if you're cycling in every day?

Loose it! (could you get extra wages in lieu?)

That's an outragous stance to take when comanies should be encouraging health benifits and reducing carbon footprints.

Take the value of the car as an allowance. You can buy much more for your dosh.

They do kinda have a point… but then surely you have the car not only as a 'perk' but to go on business trips, see customers, etc.?

In my naive world, I thought company cars were for doing work with, and if you paid for it you got to use it for personal milage. What sort of job do you do where you get a company car but never take it to work?

I do use the car to visit clients, we have hit our busy period and need to be in the office.

Think I am going to use it to transport my shirts on a Monday and return home on a Friday, just so they see it in the car park. Then it keeps all happy.

Certainly some jobs provide cars as they expect that the employee has need of it to carry out his/her job. Other employees (senior managers/directors etc) get their car as part of their package and is probably as much a "perk" as that they need it to carry out their job.

Unless your job is such that you could be called out at any time of any day to visit a client I can't see that they would have much of a leg to stand on if they took it away from you and you contested it legally. Is your car a perk or needed to carry out your job? Have you got your contract about that you could look at? Does it specify the terms of your entitlement to the car?

Is the car a lease item? I know in the 80s one of my friends had a slight problem with tax relief on the car as she did more private than business mileage which meant that HMRC regarded the car as a perk than as a tool of her work. I didn't think that car allowance and taxation worked quite that way any more.

I think I'd be pretty stubborn about not cycling in. Contact CTC even if you aren't a member (though in my opinion those of us who are bike-aholics should be members for just this sort of thing) and see if they can offer any information/guidance.

Stick at it, don't let the man grind you down.

Drive in with bike, cycle home
Cycle in, then drive home with bike

You use the car every day
You use the bike every day

buzzlightyear – good thinking!!!!

Buzzlightyear – Member
Drive in with bike, cycle home
Cycle in, then drive home with bike

You use the car every day
You use the bike every day

Thats my plan now mate, will keep all happy 8)

Its a good solution buts its also B0110x isn't

Maybe offer to keep the car in the car patk and ofer to burn a litre of petrol in a steel bucket every day…..

Any company car I ever had was provided on the basis that it was available for use by any of my colleagues during work hours. So, it may not be just a question of what's convenient for you.

My mate had a similar problem: he asked his boss for the C2W but he obviously didn't grasp the concept of it and said if you give your car up, you can have a bike instead and for meetings with clients we'll hire a car for you!!!!

How strange to live in a world dominated by company car use. I'd hate work in an industry where that's considered important and an indication of worth. Actually I think I'd refuse to work in a place like that.

Any company car I ever had was provided on the basis that it was available for use by any of my colleagues during work hours

sod that given the amount of tax you pay for a company car these days I wouldnt have accepted that situation where office junior could rag it round at lunchtimes leaving his empty mcdonalds wrappers in it
Its your car regardless of it being a company car, not some wierd pool car that you pay through the nose for

I disagree with a couple of comments about the amount it costs to have a company car and how much more you could buy wiht the allowance. This is simply not true when you take all of the maintenance and insurance into consideration. Provided you are sensible with the selection of your company car (low to moderate emissions) it works out cheaper than running a comparable car yourself and that's just taking into account insurance for yourself let alone insuring your partner or offspring.

Leave the car in the carpark at work?

dunno about that tj – we are explicitly told no cars to be left in the car park at work – this includes if we are unexpectantly called away on business – we are based very near the airport-closer than the charge through the nose carparks. i had to take a colleagues car home the other night as he was called to cyprus during the day- and as i cycle he asked if i could take it home.

one of our managers has argued the toss about this but its a world wide policy and the reasoning is it avoids attracting theives – despite us having 24 hour on site patroling security on our site – others dont

also on that note – one of our lads was getting car allowance despite having lost his licence for a year through excessive noise pedal

why not suggest a car pool?

sheppie

having just switched from company car to my own 8 months ago I can tell you that for a comparable sized car, and with only a relatively moderate allowance (£6100 a year and 17 pence per business mile) I am working it out that I am approx £200 a month better off and that includes all fully comp with business milage (20k+ per year)insurance for me and wife etc
Given a service costs around £150, a set of new tyres £200 and brake pads etc say another £200 tops even with the occasional unforeseen incident that still means I am raking it in in comparison
Ok I don't have quite such a fancy badge on the front but I actually prefer this car to the company car, I have something to show for the payments and I now have a proper insurance history but thats all a bit off topic

Sounds like the OP works for an arsehole of a backwards company IMO

Tell them to stuff their job – its obviously less important to you than cycling !

I specifically asked our HR department about my lease car when I took up C2W. My car is for use by me as my primary means of business travel, but I don't have to have it here with me all the time. It isn't available for others to drive either as it's not a fully funded company car (I pay for my private use). I drive in when I am on duty for emergencies but only live 10-15 mnins away by car anyway so if I need it I can get it fairly quickly.

Is there some agreement that can be reached? I suspect that taking the cash in lieu of a car would require the same availability. My wife's certainly does.

i have a similar thing. Have a company car, but on office days i try to cycle in to get fit and also save a few £ as that counts as private mileage. other colleagues do the same or walk.

I think that someone somewhere has taken the mick, as we have all been strongly reminded that the company car needs to be available at all times at work (we do sometimes need to go to site but other cars are available). This means drive in, cycle home, cycle in, drive home. This is ok but not always easy to plan. it's worth it to keep the car though as the value of that to me is quite high.

OP do you genuinely require a company car?

Would owning your own runabout be totally abhorrent to you?

I mean if you’re cycling in most days your motorised commuting use must be quite low, how much business mileage do you actually need to do given you don’t feel the need to have a car within easy reach when you are at work?

Our company has a quite flexible and very useful contract with Enterpise, and as such we have almost no company cars and minimal issues with employees taking the piss on private mileage…

Given current economic trends I think the days of the company car must be quite numbered, pool vehicles and rental agreements could well see a resurgence…

17 pence per business mile

Irrelevent of the size of your allowance (which in reality is just salary) the IR allows your company to pay you up to 40ppm (first 10k) tax free. If they pay you less, you can claim the net back from the IR.

Company Car vs Car Allowance… Went through this 6 or 7 years ago. If you are on 40% tax and do less than say 30k miles per year, then the allowance is far more cost effective.

Pool Car – The company I was with circa 15 yrs ago went through this debate. If they insist on you making it available to other tell them to pay the tax or **** it. If you pay the tax it is your personal vehicle, not a pool vehicle. IIRC this is a dodge used by many (often med-small) companies to keep the depreciating asset of a pool vehicle off their books. Just refuse.

It's hilarious here – the salesfolk get quality company cars – let their other halves use the car during the week and ride in (or drive crappy cars) to work. No-one bats an eyelid!

b r – Member
17 pence per business mile

Irrelevent of the size of your allowance (which in reality is just salary) the IR allows your company to pay you up to 40ppm (first 10k) tax free. If they pay you less, you can claim the net back from the IR.

yes well aware of that, have my claim for last year registered with IR at the mo. You dont get the cash though as I understand, just an adjustment to your tax code
You can also claim a rate per mile for business miles done by bike, or giving a colleague a lift

rkk01 – completely agree, that was roughly my findings too, I worked it out at about 25k business miles last year, but also depends if you get private fuel allowance too – that for me was the real tax killer even with the escalating price of diesel
Agree with you on pool car too