Shropshire Council has started a pilot programme with Enterprise Car Club to provide its employees with rental cars as an alternative for business trips.
Five dedicated Enterprise Car Club For Fiestas will be based at Shirehall in Shrewsbury, with more planned in the coming months. The cars will be available for council employees to use 24/7, 365 days a year for business trips. They can be booked online by the hour and accessed with a key card or mobile app.
Shropshire Council said employees previously used their own cars for business trips and claimed mileage reimbursement. The council commented that it believes having hire cars available and making better use of public transport could be more efficient and cost-effective for the business.
In addition to the dedicated vehicles located at the council building, employees have access to the 1,500 Enterprise Car Club vehicles located in 25 cities across the UK.
James Willocks, transport commissioning manager at Shropshire Council, said: “Working with Enterprise, we can track who is booking the cars, when, how far the travel and why, which will enable us to capture and analyse the journey data to hopefully help us significantly reduce our current expenditure on mileage reimbursement.
“We also hope that this scheme will offer potential savings for staff. By providing them with alternative travel options, they could reduce their own personal costs by removing the need for business insurance on their vehicle, reducing wear and tear and additionally reducing the depreciation in value of their vehicle.
“Importantly, as employers are liable for the condition of any vehicles used for business, Enterprise Car Club also helps us with our duty of care to our staff. These new cars are modern and regularly maintained, so we can now be certain our employees are in vehicles that are low-emission and fit for purpose.”
Dan Gursel, managing director of Enterprise Car Club, added: “Many local councils have traditionally relied on the grey fleet, but are now realising that this is both costly and can lead to employees driving older, less well-maintained vehicles. It also means they have little control over that travel, as the expense claim is sometimes the only record.”
enterprise.co.uk