The recent U.S tax law changes created a problem for employers who use a non-accountable vehicle reimbursement plan. Negative feedback has some companies reconsidering the viability of offering company-provided vehicles to help key employees mitigate the adverse impact of eliminated tax deduction.
The best fleet managers survived the total fleet management era because they brought value to their companies.
“Total fleet management” is a generic, shorthand term used to refer to programs offered by FMCs that administer all aspects of a client company’s fleet operations. Have you ever wondered about the origin of this concept? You might be surprised to learn that IBM was one of the initial catalysts leading to the development of today’s total fleet management programs. This might surprise some in the fleet industry, because for the longest time, IBM has been the poster child of driver reimbursement.
Wheels Inc. has become the first fleet management company to offer a program to help its clients manage reimbursed vehicles, the company has announced.
A company vehicle is an important and treasured asset. Fleet managers need to use their professional judgment to determine who gets cars and who doesn’t.
WASHINGTON - The new IRS mileage reimbursement rate reflects an increase of 1 cent, up from 55.5 cents per mile in 2011 and 2012.
Historically, IBM was the largest company offering a corporate reimbursement program. In its heyday, IBM had more than 25,000 drivers on reimbursement. However, since then, there have emerged major company-provided fleets operated by hi-tech companies, such as Hewlett-Packard, Apple, Intel, etc.. Despite this trend, certain high-tech companies continue to be more receptive to driver reimbursement programs than company-provided vehicles. Why is this so?
Do you really know who is driving your company-provided vehicles? Often the "at-work" persona of an employee is not the true indicator of their behavior when no one is watching. Recently, someone forwarded me a link to a chat room for pharmaceutical reps. I did a search of posts that included the phrase "company car" and, in short order, I was shocked at some of the comments written about their use of company cars and how drivers play "the system" to their advantage.
Reimbursement has re-emerged as a fleet issue. One reason is that Runzheimer has a rival, which means two competitive sales forces are aggressively selling vehicle reimbursement programs. Also, the recession, corporate downsizing, funding/credit constraints, OEM viability, and economic uncertainty have renewed senior management's desire to re-examine reimbursement.
Score one for our side! Recently, a Fortune 100 company gave (very) serious consideration to eliminating its company-provided vehicle fleet program and switching to driver reimbursement. Initially driving this initiative was senior management’s desire to cut cost by removing the vehicle assets from the books. The option to move to an operating lease was not viable since it violated the company’s accounting policies set by finance.
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