Hiya, not for me but for Mrs AD, she has been using her own vehicle for short trips etc to shops/post office etc (all work related jobs) and until recently her company have been fine with her claiming her mileage for this.

This morning however her H+R dept have emailed saying that they are no longer supporting her mileage claims and from now on she ‘MUST’ use the pool car.

The thing is, shes not a very confident driver and really wouldn’t like to take out the very large Mercedes compared to driving her Seat Leon.
What are her options?

P.s. She didn’t like my option of use the pool car and crash it.

for short trips

walk?

Once she drives a proper car she’ll love it. This could get expensive.

Pretty sure they can, where I work you need a good reason not to use the pool car if it’s available (and not being confident in driving it wouldn’t be considered a good reason).

probably covering their own back .

is your leon covered for business purposes ?

Apparently cocaine helps with confidence issues. Just tell her to rack up a massive line on the dash of the Merc before each journey.

Of course they can …
Their time, their tasks, their vehicle …

Maybe you wife needs more driving training?

it’s kind of the point of pool cars. and yes it’s up to them how they work as a company.

Cost saving (and arse-covering) by the company. Cheaper to use pool car and as asked above, do you have business insurance for her car?

yes they can – can she not choose to do the tasks when the pool car is in use and thereby have to use her own?

Has she explained to HR?
Perhaps explain the confidence think and ask for training or offer to do it in her own car and not claim mileage?

Speak to HR they dont want her to crash either

I’m not sure they can, but they can just not pay expenses for using your own vehicle, so wifey can either burn company fuel, or accept fuel/wear and tear on her own car.
edit – bear in mind, business insurance will still be needed.

Your wife will be covered by the companies insurance if she has an accident. If she does have an accident using your car then I assume you dont have the relevant “business” insurance?
As above I think unless it is an unusual vehicle then she simply needs to use the company one.

It’s a well documented phenomenon that the best way to increase confidence in an activity is to avoid doing it wherever possible. (-:

In seriousness, would some form of extra driver training help? Would be beneficial both from the point of view of driving the company beast, and also generally on the roads in her own car.

Has she considered alternative motives? Do they have trackers in the pool cars?

You can refuse to use the pool car if you consider it unsafe or not roadworthy.

You can refuse to use the pool car if you consider it unsafe or not road worthy

I’d love to see how that conversation would go. 😉

We just had an email go around asking us to send in license and MOT details for personal cars used for business. Something to do with ‘elf n safety and the company being responsible for your vehicle. Looks like some 3rd party company is managing the whole thing. Guess they wouldn’t have to do this if they mandated pool car use.

I doubt they can force her to use the pool car, but if she uses her own then by providing a pool car and asking her to use it any liability will probably move from them to her. As above, if she hasn’t got business cover then she’s probably at risk of no payout in the event of a claim.

Personally I’d use the pool car, if it takes a little while to get used to… oh well.

if she hasn’t got business cover then she’s probably at risk of no payout prosecution in the event of a claim.

Driving without insurance, innit.

Apart from using the pool car, she could continue to use her own and not claim mileage.

But tbh, why doesn’t she just say she’s not happy driving a big car – and await their response.

“if she hasn’t got business cover then she’s probably at risk of no payout prosecution in the event of a claim.

Driving without insurance, innit. “

unlikely – she will have 3rd party cover but will recieve no payout in respect to any damage to her car. but dont let that stop you believing the uninsured thing. – what she will also be subject to though is the insurance company taking legal action to recover the third party pay out for non declaration

unlikely – she will have 3rd party cover but will recieve no payout in respect to any damageto her car. but dont let that stop you believing the uninsured thing.

Employer indemnity?

dont let that stop you believing the uninsured thing.

TBH, I really should have put a question mark at the end of that comment.

I’m surprised if it’s not the case though; if you’re insured for a given purpose (I vaguely remember it being something like “social, domestic and pleasure, and to and from work”) and you’re using the car for other purposes (business), you’re not insured. Are you? Live and learn if so.

I did work with a guy many years ago who refused on the grounds that he’d bought a car with airbags and a higher safety rating than the pool car that was available. He was allowed to carry on using his own car.

Our onsite vehicles were death traps as they were never MOT’d as they never left private land. I had carbon monoxide poisoning on one occasion and the windscreen fell in on us on another as we were driving.

Who, **** me. Didn’t realise this was such a hot topic.

Thanks to all responses, bit more of an outline is that she’s the company receptionist so gets all the ‘dogsbody’ jobs. Never moans about this but does seem to be increasingly sent out for ‘work’.(presuming that includes getting the bosses/employee’s dinners etc/birthday cards n presents)

Anyway, the Pool car is a Big Auto Mercedes(that the only detail I have about it but I believe its an E Class). Now being a bloke I cant empathise with her regarding driving other cars etc as we seem to just jump in them and drive but with Mrs AD at 5’2″ I can sort of understand where she is coming from being intimidated by such a large vehicle.

Sounds like she’s gotta bite the bullet and jump in it though. I’ll maybe suggest using it at the weekends so then we can burn the company fuel for our own pleasure.

Our work prefer people to use pool car / hire car whenever possible. reasons are:

– They are paying for the pool car anyway, why pay wou £0.45 a mile?
– They can get hire cars very cheaply
– One of the mitigations on the risk assessment is “ensure vehicle is properly maintaned etc”. Difficult to claim if employee is using own car
– They provide insurance

Tbh most people prefer it. No wear on own car, no insurance worries. Only folk that don’t are milking the milleage allowance. Is it genuinely just that she doesn’t want to drive the pool car or is part of £££?

A) Get business insurance, but accept her employers won’t pay her fuel.

B) Use the company car provided, save her car from wear/tear, and don’t pay for fuel.

I’d like to see her reaction when you suggest “extra driver training” 👿

she needs to go for it. It will be a useful exercise from the point of view of getting her over her fear of bigger cars, and increasing her driving confidence, and all at someone elses risk too.

I’ll maybe suggest using it at the weekends so then we can burn the company fuel for our own pleasure.

This! Great perk if you can swing it. Plus a bigger car by the sounds of things, handy for weekends away….

I’ll maybe suggest using it at the weekends so then we can burn the company fuel for our own pleasure.

only if you want to be taxed on it..

On the other hand, the company cars could be those awful Toyota Hybrid things like we use. I use them a fair bit because I cycle in most days so off site visits need a car but god I hate them.

Well you’ll all be pleased to know she has now read this thread, her reaction to the ‘extra training’ was as expected….Cheeky barstewards!!…thank god shes the other side of emails.

As for whether she has genuine anxiety about driving the much larger car or if she’s coining it in from the mileage allowance. I know 100% its the first, she doesn’t ‘make’ loads of money doing the miles as there isn’t enough mileage. Her last months expenses were £13.33 (31 miles @ £0.43/mile) Its pocket change!!

You still never mentioned whether she had business insurance.

We have two rates of mileage. The higher one (45p) is paid when the only option is to use your own car, the lower rate (25p) when there is a cheaper option (pool car or public transport) but you choose to use your own car for whatever reason.

It might be worth your missus asking if something like this might apply to her.

Has she considered alternative motives? Do they have trackers in the pool cars?

What’s a cereal bar got to do with this?

DrP

Its an E class its not really that big.

TooTall – Member

You still never mentioned whether she had business insurance.

Nope she hasn’t, little point for the mileage she does.

somewhatslightlydazed – Member

We have two rates of mileage. the lower rate (25p) when there is a cheaper option (pool car or public transport) but you choose to use your own car for whatever reason.

It might be worth your missus asking if something like this might apply to her.

I’ll suggest this to her. Would be the most sensible option

Surfer, you’re not 5’2″ are you?

Little point ? Fine until there’s an accident and the insurers ask if she was using the car for business purposes.

Its an E class its not really that big.

All relative, isn’t it. It’s not in comparison to, say, a double-decker bus or a Boeing 7474, but it’s huge compared to a Leon.

---

To be fair re: the “cheeky” comment, the suggestion of extra training isn’t implying that she can’t drive; rather that if you’re not particularly confident in an area then a bit of coaching might improve this.

We’ve discussed this before. Plenty of people would jump(*) at a bike skills course from Jedi or similar, but suggest a car skills course and some folk come over all affronted.

(* – ho ho!!)