Vehicle leasing and fleet management companies need to do more to help their corporate customers manage the risk to their businesses posed by what is known as the ‘grey fleet’.

This is the view of Simon West-Oliver, Director of technology firm Drive Software Solutions.

But what, may you ask, is a ‘grey fleet’? Good question. According to the BVRLA, a ‘grey fleet' vehicle is one which is employee owned and is used for work related journeys. The vehicle is not owned or leased by a company.

“There are two significant issues here for organisations, the first and much the most serious is to do with risk management,” explained Mr West-Oliver. “If a firm is paying its employees to ferry each other around in vehicles, do they have any way of knowing if those vehicles are roadworthy? 

“If not, the company would be rightly exposed to questions about health and safety at work. A secondary issue relates to keeping track of organisations’ carbon footprint, for example. The Department of Energy and Climate Change has issued guidelines to Local Authorities which require them to provide a large inventory of CO2 emissions including emissions from own electricity and gas use, own transport, business travel, grey fleet (i.e. transport owned by employees which costs are claimed back via expenses) and contractors.”

The Health and Safety at Work Act of 1974 is the primary piece of legislation covering occupational health and safety in Great Britain. 

According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), ‘The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 requires employers to take appropriate steps to ensure the health and safety of their employees and others who may be affected by their activities when at work. This includes the time when they are driving or riding at work, whether this is in a company or hired vehicle, or in the employee’s own vehicle. 

‘There will always be risks associated with driving. Although these cannot be completely controlled, an employer has a responsibility to take all reasonable steps to manage these risks and do everything reasonably practicable to protect people from harm in the same way as they would in the workplace.’

Explaining the role leasing and vehicle management companies should play, Mr West-Oliver added: “On the face of it, grey fleet is an issue for end user fleet operators to worry about and most leasing and fleet management companies only get involved in the management of their own vehicles. 

“This means that companies have to cobble together a Heath-Robinson way of checking driving licences, vehicle CO2 figures and MOT certificates, which can be time consuming, inefficient and costly.”

“We see the management of grey fleet as a major opportunity for leasing and vehicle management companies to engage far more closely with the businesses who lease cars from them. By employing proper database driven systems, leasing companies can hold and manage data about vehicles and drivers on behalf of their customers and deliver seamless access to that data which will allow those customers to protect themselves from unnecessary risk.”

He concluded by pointing out one of the commercial opportunities for leasing companies around grey fleet vehicles. “There is a significant business upside for leasing companies who have systems which allow them to efficiently manage grey fleet risks,” he explained. 

“If you are able to show fleets that the cost of reimbursing employees to run their own vehicles is exceeding the cost of leasing or short term hiring pool vehicles, there are significant sales to be made.”