C&RT company cars

[fittie]

I work with someone who's father-in-law works for C&RT. She said that she thinks that it is wrong for workers of a charity to have a flashy/posh/expensive company car.

She understands that her father-in-law needs to go to meetings all over the region but does he need a Mercedes to do it in? She knows that there are money issues with C&RT and can't understand 

why they are spending money on Mercs and not on more pressing issues.

I must say that I agree. I feel that they are waisting money that they can ill afford.

That's my rant for the day!

[rgreg]

I'm surprised they are still issuing company cars as many companies, including my old employer, have replaced this with a car allowance. This means the employee, instead of the car, has a fixed payment, can choose the vehicle of their choice, and is cheaper for the employer through not having to manage the fleet.

[Guest]

How exactly does their Company car scheme operate, perhaps if we had some information about that we could a start at having an informed discussion.

Some schemes for example allow employees to personally pay more towards a better car thus not increasing the cost to the employer.

I don't know if CRT's scheme operates like this but sometimes it's easy to jump to conclusions without all the facts.

ed beaten to it by rgreg

Going back many years when I worked in the NHS when I was a district nurse and a nurse manager they used to have a designated 'base' vehicle (I cant recall what it was but it was something like a Fiesta).

They were operated through a lease car scheme. The base vehicle was offered at a low monthly payment deducted from salary. We could opt. to have a better car but we had to personally pay more towards it - I opted for a Ford Escort XR3i and later up 'market' Peugeots and Renaults as the family grew up. They all cost me quite a bit more than what I could have had a base car for, but as it was the only car in the family at the time it was worth it to me.

Edited February 3, 2018 by MJG

[fittie]

Good point well made and I don't know I am just passing on a conversation I have yesterday. She was under the impression that he was hoping to buy the car from C&RT after a couple of years but

she might be wrong...

[Captain Pegg]

Is it a historic Merc?

[MCFastybloke]

In order to attract good people. you need a good package

[bizzard]

An Amphicar would be more appropriate. But that would be expensive. 

[fittie]

C&RT inherited him from BWB

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, fittie said:

Good point well made and I don't know I am just passing on a conversation I have yesterday. She was under the impression that he was hoping to buy the car from C&RT after a couple of years but

she might be wrong...

We used to get the chance to buy ours at a competitive price at the end of the lease, however it couldn't be guaranteed because of some obscure impact on our tax liability (I cant recall the detail TBH). People often bought them, because they knew their history and how they had been driven and they always had a full documented main dealer service history. Lots became the second car in two car households.

[mrsmelly]

25 minutes ago, MCFastybloke said:

In order to attract good people. you need a good package

Quite often the case. My little girl when she was lower management had to travel to amongst other places Bristol and London for meetings. At first she had a choice of booking out a " Pool " car and driving to these places or going by train second class. She stopped in places such as Premier inns etc. Now she is head of department her choices are that she can again go by car but she is chauffer driven or she can go by train first class or she can fly and she stops in nice hotels. To me its all bunkum but that's the way supposed perks come in life. Years ago a mate was a sales Rep and had a cortina " L " apparently the sales manager had a Ghia and that was what he aspired to 

[Graham Davis]

I very much doubt that CaRT own the car anyway. Their vans are certainly leased.

[Pluto]

48 minutes ago, MCFastybloke said:

In order to attract good people. you need a good package

I've seen too many good people on low incomes, and too many poorly qualified on high incomes to believe that. In effect, you are saying that the majority of people providing social services are not good people when, from my experience of those caring for the elderly, the vast majority are good, but on low wages. 

[alan_fincher]

It's almost certain to be based around some kind of leasing deal, rather than outright purchased by CRT.

When I was in a company car scheme, (private employer), you got an allowance as part of the reward package for the grade.  You could then choose the car you wanted, (or even have none at all, but have the allowance), and if you chose one that cost more than your allowance, you made up the difference.

BMWs, Mercs, (even Porsches), were options to me, but I could get a better deal on other cars that delivered as much as in all but the name, at far less cost. (Why I ran high in the range Volvo V70s for many years - the company had a special deal with Ford).

When I took early retirement, I was allowed to buy a one year old V70 at what was a very competitive price, but what the leasing contract allowed. (Thirteen years on I'm still running it!).

Unless you know the fine detail of the CRT leasing deal, (or whatever they have), and the actual relative cost of the car to CRT and to the employee, you really can reach no conclusions at all that CRT are offering some completely unjustified perk.

[Derek R.]

59 minutes ago, Pluto said:

I've seen too many good people on low incomes, and too many poorly qualified on high incomes to believe that. In effect, you are saying that the majority of people providing social services are not good people when, from my experience of those caring for the elderly, the vast majority are good, but on low wages. 

Very true. My wife was a carer in the community for some time, on minimum wage and used her own car with a travel allowance based on mileage from base to client, for which she had to get insurance for "business purposes", and so it got loaded.

[pete harrison]

1 hour ago, mrsmelly said:

Quite often the case. My little girl when she was lower management had to travel to amongst other places Bristol and London for meetings. At first she had a choice of booking out a " Pool " car and driving to these places or going by train second class. She stopped in places such as Premier inns etc. Now she is head of department her choices are that she can again go by car but she is chauffer driven or she can go by train first class or she can fly and she stops in nice hotels. To me its all bunkum but that's the way supposed perks come in life.  

I have never considered travelling for business a perk, however the journey is undertaken, and similarly I have never seen hotel accommodation for business a perk - both being more a necessity and often quite a lonely experience  

[MCFastybloke]

1 hour ago, Graham Davis said:

I very much doubt that CaRT own the car anyway. Their vans are certainly leased.

To lease is to be tax efficient. 

[JamesFrance]

7 minutes ago, MCFastybloke said:

To lease is to be tax efficient. 

It gets it off the balance sheet so doesn't show as borrowing i.e. debt'   I used to lease JCBs for that reason.

[mrsmelly]

30 minutes ago, pete harrison said:

I have never considered travelling for business a perk, however the journey is undertaken, and similarly I have never seen hotel accommodation for business a perk - both being more a necessity and often quite a lonely experience  

I agree hence my " Roll eyes " but the facts are that a posher car or first class travel etc etc is administered as a supposed perk.

[Dr Bob]

When you are looking at the 'cost' of a lease deal on company cars, a big chunk of the 3 or 4 year cost comes in the retained value, so a Merc may well be as low a cost as a Ford to the company. I had company cars for a lot of my career and we were allowed to 'top up' to the car we wanted. A very popular choice in our company was the Porsche Boxster as its second hand value was so high. I think our company bought (leased) more boxsters as company cars than any other company in the UK. My last car was 12 years ago and the cost to me was the same for a £35K Boxster or a £23K Ford. It was a no-brainer.

[roland elsdon]

Quite so when I worked for the nhs we used to be advised to lease certain vehicles and in 2000 it was baby draggers. So my collegues without children is to drive 7 seat Picasso and other trash in spite of being child free, because their trendiness made their residuals high .

of course I had a Mg Zs2.5 v6 with the bad boy full spoiler to visit patients...depreciation special when they  went broke...

Sorry my collegues without children all went to drive

[Nightwatch]

Went for a job interview for selling insurance. I knew it wasn't the job for me as after too short a time said I was successful and they would deliver an Austin Metro in two working days. A bloomin' Metro, no thanks.

i once had a car that I owned but used for work. Travelled from Waterlooville,near Portsmouth to Honda in Swindon. I next used it for a job I had travelling many miles for ROMEC, engineering side of Royal Mail this car never ever let me down, A Rover 620. Honda engine. Another self owned car that I enjoyed was a Vauxhall  Omega 2.5 Turbo Diesel. (BMW straight 6) Had it chipped. **** off a shovel performance. Lovely car until a van infornt of me stopped suddenly, I stopped suddenly and the oldish lady behind me didn't stop suddenly. In fact she travelled about two feet too far. 

Company Cars were sometimes essential, sometimes just a perk. When I was much younger I assessed company and my potential position with the car that came with the job. Bloody Metro, youre having a 'giraffe' I think most companies now offer a car allowance and mileage. 

How things change.

PS. My brother once bought his then wife a Metro MG GT something or other. Now that was fun to drive and whizz around in.

 

Edited February 4, 2018 by Nightwatch

[pete harrison]

22 hours ago, pete harrison said:

I have never considered travelling for business a perk, however the journey is undertaken, and similarly I have never seen hotel accommodation for business a perk - both being more a necessity and often quite a lonely experience  

I have never reached the dizzy heights of a company car, but I did once have a company pair of boats - including accommodation 

[Allan(nb Albert)]

C&RT closed its company car scheme in its  2014/15 company year and introduced  car allowances for those employees elligible. As each company car lease contract ends the employee starts to receive  a monthly car allowance instead.

Costs for last company year were £0.7m company car scheme and £2.4m car allowances - total £3.1m.
 

(I once ran a Lada as a company car ...)

Edited February 4, 2018 by Allan(nb Albert)

[john6767]

On 03/02/2018 at 12:37, rgreg said:

I'm surprised they are still issuing company cars as many companies, including my old employer, have replaced this with a car allowance. This means the employee, instead of the car, has a fixed payment, can choose the vehicle of their choice, and is cheaper for the employer through not having to manage the fleet.

I would have thought that too, the company I work for switched from company cars to a car allowance over 10 years ago.  Basically the tax you pay on company cars was making it less worthwhile for most people.

when we did have company cars, depending on your grade you got a specific lease amount and you could choose what you wanted as long as it was suitable for business use, no sports cars for example

[Jess--]

9 hours ago, Nightwatch said:

Another self owned car that I enjoyed was a Vauxhall  Omega 2.5 Turbo Diesel. (BMW straight 6) Had it chipped. **** off a shovel performance.

I ran the petrol version for a while, no mods done, my only complaint was that the outside world goes a bit blurry at 130+