BVRLA News
www.bvrla.co.uk February/March 2011
The newsletter of the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association
Our Budget goal: fair tax It is time for the government to deliver on its promises of fairer taxes and less red tape. This is the message delivered by the BVRLA ahead of Chancellor George Osborne’s 23 March Budget. “Our industry has helped the government deliver a successful emissions-based company car tax regime,” said BVRLA chief executive John Lewis. “We want to continue this partnership by delivering a fairer tax system for road users and pointing out some of the Department for Transport’s most glaring inefficiencies.” On behalf of its members, the BVRLA is pushing for a straightforward, technologyneutral company car tax framework which delivers clarity and certainty to road users. All this can be achieved while protecting tax receipts for the Exchequer.
The BVRLA has also identified ‘red tape’ it believes the government can cut for the benefit of all fleet operators. The association believes that the advent of continuous registration laws and increasing use of automatic number plate recognition cameras make the tax disc obsolete. It estimates that abolishing the disc would save the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency over £90m a year in administration costs and eliminate a massive amount of paperwork for fleet owners. Allowing companies to buy their vehicle excise duty on a multi-year basis would bring similar benefits, the BVRLA believes.
In its submission the association reiterates its call for the removal of the 3% diesel supplement in benefit-in-kind tax for company cars and fuel.
Despite the recent surge in fuel prices, the association shares the concerns of many in the public sector about the tax-free mileage allowances paid to employees who use their own vehicles for work (known as the ‘grey fleet’).
“This is the one glaring error in the entire company car tax regime,” said Lewis. “It penalises company car users for selecting the very same diesel vehicles that have the lowest CO2 emissions in their class. “This supplement is well past its use-by date – we know it and so does the government.”
It thinks the current allowance of 40p a mile is too high, encouraging people to use their own, often older, less environmentally-friendly vehicles instead of more appropriate means of travel, including public transport and rental or leased vehicles.
The association wants the coalition government to follow Labour’s policy of setting company car tax bands three years in advance by announcing the figures for 2013/14.
“We urge the government to align the rates to a level that represents the incremental running costs of using a private car for business, rather than the total cost of ownership,” said Lewis. n
Annual general meeting
Notice is hereby given that the annual general meeting of the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association Ltd will be held at 9.30am on Thursday, 19 May 2011 at the association’s offices at River Lodge, Badminton Court, Amersham, Bucks HP7 0DD for the following purposes: ❱ To receive the chairman’s report. ❱ To receive the report of the Committee of Management. ❱ To receive the report of the auditors. ❱ To elect the Committee of Management. ❱ To elect auditors and to arrange their remuneration. By order of the Committee of Management. John Lewis, Chief Executive
bvrla.co.uk
In this issue OFT says car hire is a ‘top ten’ problem A study of consumer contracts highlights concerns about car and van rental page 3 BVRLA queries lorry road user charge The government is pushing ahead with plans to introduce a lorry road user charge by April 2014 page 4 Leaf or Ampera: will fleets go EV or hybrid? Nissan’s Leaf electric vehicle blows into the UK this spring, with major firms set to bring it on fleet. But will others wait for Vauxhall’s Ampera hybrid? page 4 Why are we waiting? With lead times of up to eight months and missed deadlines, delivery is becoming a problem for leasing companies and brokers page 5 The Big Event: BVRLA Annual Dinner 2011 Full coverage and photos of our yearly industry gathering page 6
— Promoting responsible road transport since 1967 —