Using your own car for business

[Bailes1992]

The problem with these little 1.6 units is the turbo is on the go all the time! To make any progress you need boost.
The amount of these 1.6's you hear with turbo failure is unreal! Although lots of it is down to a blocked oil filter in the oil feed to the turbo.

[DaiRees]

So here's today's chariot. A 63 plate Zafira, 2l diesel, decent spec, 310 miles covered, went well, indicated 53 mpg, and used it to pick up some flat pack furniture for my BIL when I got home

Should have taken a photo earlier though

[rwb]

That's a Zafira? Goodness they've smartened them up a bit.

used it to pick up some flat pack furniture for my BIL when I got home

Will you be paying 45p per mile?

[Welly]

I think it needs bigger doors

If you'd have said that was a Toyota/Mazda/Kia/Ford I wouldn't have argued

[Captain Jack]

I claim 45p per mile on my tax return and the wife gets the same for her business mileage.

[Bailes1992]

I claim 20% of 45p per mile! Sounds stupid but I'm inky allowed to claim the tax back.
Infact I haven't done it since I started my apprenticeship. I should really get an accountant to sort it out as it's about £3500 now!

[Welly]

I claim 20% of 45p per mile! Sounds stupid but I'm inky allowed to claim the tax back.
Infact I haven't done it since I started my apprenticeship. I should really get an accountant to sort it out as it's about £3500 now!

If you're self-employed under the CIS scheme? then you will be taxed at 20% on all earnings and travel expenses.....but you can reclaim most of it when you do your annual return. All the subbies we use get reasonable payouts once a year like this.

[DaiRees]

The rental agreement is going really well, the uptake by the team has been better than expected and we're renting loads of cars, the local branch of Enterprise describe us as one of their best customers. I personally haven't done a great deal of long trips recently, but I've had a variety of Astras and Toyota Avensises (Avensii?) then they started "upgrading" me, had a couple of Insignia diesels which are doing about 60mpg. Sadly, here are a couple of pics.





Then I rocked up to collect a car last night for a trip to Southampton today and he gave me a brand spanking new Insignia, but a petrol one, then asked if I'd do him a favour and swap with another customer because they'd mistakenly requested the wrong class of vehicle and were saying they didn't want it 'cos it was too big, "I don't mind mate, I'll take anything as long as it's not a lower class than I booked, what is it?"







Oh and the bloke from Southampton phoned me just as I was leaving home to cancel the meeting, I've already put £50 of juice in this beast! Let's offroaaaad!

[Captain Jack]

So which one are you brining to Pugfest? Maybe a 508?

I quite like the looks of Insignia, though never been in one - let alone drive it. What are they like?

[DaiRees]

I quite like the looks of Insignia, though never been in one - let alone drive it. What are they like?

They're perfectly acceptable, not as comfy or quiet as the Volvo but they cruise well on the motorway and the ones I've had have been quite well specced, and very economical!

[Welly]

So how's it working out again then? it's cheaper to rent something and 'fuel it up' rather than pay the staff ?P/mile?

So lets say someone drove 300 miles @ 45p = £135.00 you can still hire and fuel something for less than that?

[DaiRees]

Anorak mode on...

In Q1 we were £167 (and 51KG of CO2) down over using our own cars on a spend of £2100, but we only pay 30p/mile, at 45p/mile that would have been an £800 saving. And the average journey length was only 224 miles / day. I'm also not sure that the guys fully appreciate how to calculate the right amount of fuel to put in the car before they send it back, some of the calculated MPGs on my over complicated spreadsheet seem very low for the type of car and journey (I'm currently in negotiations about having all cars delivered full so we just fill them back up before returning them, should solve that one).

So on my recent 311 mile trip, expenses would have been be £93.30 and the actual cost of rental and fuel came to £74.41, saving £18.89. Not a kings ransom but it all adds up. I book a more expensive class of car too, most of the guys get a Fiesta sized car. The breakover point is somewhere between 200-300 miles a day depending on the class of car etc, it's certainly not the 100 miles a day that Enterprise tried to tell me it was.

The CO2 deficit is to do with the fact that the guys all seem to have bought very modern, very low emission cars, so the rental cars often have a higher CO2 g/km output than our own cars, it's as simple as that. Looking forward to discussing that one with my BSi auditor at the ISO14001 audit next week....

But the benefits certainly outweigh the drawbacks and the slight cost impact (which I'll beat anyway!). The staff certainly appreciate not having to use their own cars all the time, they don't have to worry so much about where they take or park the rentals, I'm not on their backs quite so much about whether their cars are in good condition and properly insured etc... Generally everyone's happy.

From a personal view, according to Fuel Log my car is costing 23p/mile to run at the moment taking into account everything except depreciation. In Q1 I only did 691 business miles in my own car and another thousand or so in rentals, so I could have possibly "made" another £70 on expenses, but I'd rather save the 1000 miles off my odometer and leave my car safely parked on my drive.

Stuff like today doesn't help the cause, paying for a car to sit outside the office all day with £50 of diesel in the tank that I'm not going to use, but it can't be helped occasionally I suppose...

Anorak mode off

[Welly]

\ z xc v bn m , ./


Er, what, sorry, I fell asleep but only on the bottom row of the keyboard, you were saying?

Tell you what Dai I AM NOT f*cking going to your Office Christmas party you tight bastard; drinks measured out with a Pipette, Ham Sandwich layers measured with a Micrometer....f*ck that

[Captain Jack]

[DaiRees]

\ z xc v bn m , ./

Er, what, sorry, I fell asleep but only on the bottom row of the keyboard, you were saying?

Don't fecking ask then!!

Just dropped the Land Cruiser back, did the school run and everything but still only managed 80 miles...