IF you’re a small business using car rental or car sharing through a car club, you’ll understand the benefits the pay as you go motoring they bring to your business already.
- No standing costs – pay on use
- Fully duty of care compliant vehicles
- Fully expensible transport costs
- VAT recoverable
- No company car tax worries for staff
But the BVRLA isn’t convinced everyone has the message – particularly the government.
The BVRLA say it wants the government to provide more support to fulfill the government’s vision of a ‘Sharing Economy’.
So it’s meeting with officials from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) this week to help contribute to the government’s independent review of the sharing economy.
BVRLA chief executive Gerry Keaney said: “We want policymakers to understand the integral role that car rental and car clubs are already playing in the sharing economy, and their potential for future growth, given the right government support.”
The BVRLA says it has research that proves users of car rental, car clubs and car sharing own fewer vehicles and have more sustainable travel habits than the average driving licence holder.
How car rental and car clubs can help
- A 1% increase in the use of car rental at Heathrow would eliminate 225,000 unnecessary car journeys to and from the airport.
- In London alone, car journey sharing and car clubs could grow by 80% to include as many as 800,000 members by 2020.
- This would mean 79,000 fewer cars on the road, resulting in a 4.6% fall in NOx emissions and a 5.6% fall in CO2 emissions, not to mention a boost in London-wide productivity to the value of £238million.
It also says the growing popularity of pay-as-you-go road transport is already helping to reduce congestion and air pollution in urban areas and has the potential to achieve even greater benefits with the right support in the form of parking, government awareness campaigns and user incentives.
The BVRLA (British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association) is the UK trade body for companies engaged in the rental and leasing of cars and commercial vehicles. The members it represents operate a combined fleet of 3.4 million cars, vans and trucks.
Read more about car rental and car clubs
Click here to read: Are daily rental expenses tax deductible?
Click here to find out how one small business is using a car club to expand their business – Case study of OnlyRoses
