Heard this quite a few times in last few months as companies cut back on expensive stuff.

Basically various employees who have the use of a company vehicle,for work have been told to return the vehicle, and are then going to be workplace based for near future,no more visiting closed depots and sites, so theyre either having to car share or buy their own vehicle/cycle to work, and theyre not happy at loosing an almost free of motoring costs vehicle.

Anyone else affected and how did you get on,eg buy a car, cycle to work or lease a vehicle,not knowing if your company is going to be in existence after christmas

Well if they could soon fold, I wouldn’t want to be committed to finance, however having a reasonably reliant car insured for the next 12 months would be an advantage looking for work. So I would probably look at buying myself a dull 5+ year old Nissan.

If you are changing jobs internally, maybe see if if they will go half way in compensation for taking the car away, if you are contracted to have one it shouldn’t just be taken away, however if they are in trouble is it realistic to fight or rock the boat.

for all of the companies i have worked for that provide car, it comes as part of the contract, ive seen company car called in and car allowance provided to sort a lease etc… but to take a company vehicle back with no cash equivalent is a material change to contract and rather naughty without consultation

also depends if its a pool vehicle as such, so a works van etc… that can be taken home, but no private use ofherwise its a taxable bik.

that would be an easier one for a company do.

the other thing that sounds odd is that the contract on company vehicles comes with massive finanical penalties if you want to surrender a vehicle early so it makes no sense for a company that is worried about cash flow to suddenly have to settle a lot of vehicle contracts with the suppliers

the other thing that sounds odd is that the contract on company vehicles comes with massive finanical penalties if you want to surrender a vehicle early

Any penalty will be lower than the outstanding lease payments though. It was 50% of all outstanding payments when I last looked (3 months into a 3 year deal on an Audi TT when I found out my wife was pregnant with twins). I kept the car 😹

Wish I could give mine back. I’m now home based but have to keep the car for 2 more years. No option to give it back. My wife is now using it to avoid putting miles on her car but I would rather just get rid of it.

I had a company car as part of my package, oh, 15 years ago. After about 6 months my role changed and I rarely needed it, but it was still part of my remuneration. The rules changed maybe five years ago, we now needed to do (however many) thousand miles pa to qualify and that year I’d probably done about 30. So they replaced it with a (worse) car allowance. Because it’s part of my salary.

What you’re describing in the OP is a sudden pay cut of several hundred pounds a month. I’m not entirely sure that’s even legal.

I’m in the same boat. My company have phased out company cars and now everybody gets a car allowance (many people already took the allowance anyway because it suited their circumstances).

I’ve always taken a company car as I usually cover 35-40k per year, roughly 50:50 business:private so financially its a no brainer.

Now i’m moving onto the allowance, having run the figures – after tax & NI its unlikely that the allowance will cover the cost of servicing, tyres, tax & insurance, never mind actually buying or leasing a car in the first place. First world problems I know, but still a PITA.

Happened with my last job, company got bought, new company didn’t do company cars – could have kept mine for another couple of years to end of contract, but the fuel card went. Ditched the co car and took the allowance, bought myself an old V50 and it’s the comfiest barge I think I’ve ever done miles in. I THINK I was a bit better off with the allowance as long as nothing broke.

I gave up my Company Car about a year ago for an allowance. It doesn’t cover the full cost of ownership, but that was my decision to have a nicer car.

As for having your car taken away, it’s all kinds of wrong, but then at the moment all kinds of mad shit is happening and I wouldn’t be surprised.

Is this not why your not supposed to view car as part of your renumeration. Afterall it’s provided for the companies benifit not yours.

Is it actually a company car, or a van that would otherwise sit on site overnight, but in the past people have driven home, and management have not complained? So there’s nothing in a contract, and it’s just been a small perk.

If it’s that, and management are now saying ‘all vans to stay on site’, i’m not sure what can be done.

and theyre not happy at loosing an almost free of motoring costs vehicle.

If you stick to inland revenue rules that’s been the case for years. If someone takes a company van home and uses it to get to and from work that is a perk and needs to be paid for. Sounds like as times have got harder companies are trying to reduce costs where they can (and making themselves legal)

Better to loose a perk than your job

My old company told me to ensure that the company car was in the office car park every day as other employees could use it during work hours if required. This was as a 2 fingers to me as I used to cycle to work on the days I was not on site and In the office. It made cycling to work impossible unless I left the car in the car park over night. I cashed it in eventually and just took a pool car for site visits.

A car allowance isn’t supposed to cover the cost of buying a car, it’s an allowance towards and is really just part of most peoples salary package. Company car tax is constantly going up and you have nothing to show for it if you leave. The tipping point has been reached for most people, unless you do a lot of company miles a car allowance is the more sensible way to go. YMMV.

Is this not why your not supposed to view car as part of your remuneration. Afterall it’s provided for the companies benefit not yours.

Depends how it’s offered. If it’s just a car for work, and you don’t get to use it for personal stuff then it’s not – but then you don’t pay tax on it. Few companies offer that because it’s a sure-fire way of getting an HMRC inspection, they’ve got to store them all, you’ve got people who clearly need a car for work who can’t travel from home, significant paperwork to keep HMRC happy etc.

If it’s for private use as well, then it’s part of your ‘package’ and you pay tax on it.

When I’ve worked for big companies your ‘package’ (fnar fanr) was worth way more than just your salary.

Mine was Salary + Profit Share + PRP (a.k.a Bonus) + Pension + Car + Mobile + City Centre Parking Space. I paid tax on most of them to varying degrees.

If they took away any of them, and I wasn’t compensated in another way, then my income has been reduced, even if it’s not in pounds and pence. Given the times, I’m sure many people would be happy to accept that for the time being. Especially if you were a company car driver who has found them self WFH and you’ve got a CC on the drive gathering dust, but still costing you hundreds a month in BIK, I’d probably be quite keen to surrender it until things change.

Especially if you were a company car driver who has found them self WFH and you’ve got a CC on the drive gathering dust, but still costing you hundreds a month in BIK, I’d probably be quite keen to surrender it until things change.

Yep, this is me – The BIK value of my 2l Diesel BMW is now £10k p/a and i’d gladly hand it back tomorrow if i could.

I’ve got about 18 months left on the lease and do not want another.
I’m not sure i’ll get the option of an allowance next time, but if i have to order another car i’ll be filtering the list via BIK value rather than BHP next time..

Yep, this is me – The BIK value of my 2l Diesel BMW is now £10k p/a and i’d gladly hand it back tomorrow if i could.

I’ve got about 18 months left on the lease and do not want another.
I’m not sure i’ll get the option of an allowance next time, but if i have to order another car i’ll be filtering the list via BIK value rather than BHP next time..

Ouch, I’ve just checked my Skoda if it was a CC it would cost me £360 a month in additional income tax, which is £50 a month more than the PCP costs me. My Car allowance ‘only’ costs me £180 in additional income tax.

If you’re not using it, any chance you can ask your employer to let you surrender it for a few months at least? It shouldn’t cost them any additional tax.

Ouch, I’ve just checked my Skoda if it was a CC it would cost me £360 a month in additional income tax, which is £50 a month more than the PCP costs me.

Presumably if it was a company car insurance, servicing, Tax etc would also be covered out of that £50 per month?

My poverty spec diesel mondeo only costs me about £100 per month in additional tax, I just add private mileage fuel and I doubt that cheaper motoring can be found 👍

What you’re describing in the OP is a sudden pay cut of several hundred pounds a month. I’m not entirely sure that’s even legal.

I don’t think the OP is describing a company car that is part of a contract and intended to be a perk – notice he calls it a “company vehicle”. I think he means a “works van”. I doubt people who are affected will get too much sympathy from ordinary workers who haven’t been milking the system for years and had to provide their own transport to work; or those who did get company cars/allowances and have been heavily taxed on them.

There are also folks who have company cars provided due to mileage and work requirements. But if you’re not doing the mileage and there’s no work requirement, why provide the car?

It’s not a benefit, it’s a business tool. Like having a mobile or a laptop

This is different to a company car perk, which would be more like a loss of earnings

They are meant to be looking at company cars where I work, especially now a lot are saying they no longer want to go back to an office or visit sites.

I often wondered how some justified a car in the first place.

There are also folks who have company cars provided due to mileage and work requirements. But if you’re not doing the mileage and there’s no work requirement, why provide the car?

It’s not a benefit, it’s a business tool. Like having a mobile or a laptop

Very few people, if any anymore are getting a car just as a perk. It was a great tax swindle back in the day, but not for years.

I suppose if you can get an EV you’d be laughing, but again, unlike years ago you can’t trust the Gov not to screw you retrospectively.

I don’t think the OP is describing a company car that is part of a contract and intended to be a perk – notice he calls it a “company vehicle”. I think he means a “works van”

as above but better description,
a vehicle used to visit sites and get around as opposed to the driver having any material interest in the vehicle, but the driver/member of staff being office/workshop based as opposed to traveling round visiting, and them not being happy at lack of freedom to roam anyone in this situation.

I probably should have taken full notes of the chat, with a few riders i had while out on that ride.

No private use of company vehicles seems more common now. It happened at our place. The other electrical chap left. As he put it, he had to spend his pay cut on a car.
I may or may not do the same, it doesn’t bother me as we have two cars, however storing a vehicle you can’t use is an arse ache.

My neighbour has gone the other way. He works for asos and his audi q7 was his on pcp. Because he now works from home he recons its cheaper to have a company car so the q7 has gone and replaced by a pool car until a BMW turns up soon.