David McNeill, AVP global corporate sales EMEA at Enterprise Rent-A-Car & National Car Rental

With working cultures and business mobility needs changing as a result of the pandemic, many European travel managers are having to become part of a new conversation: fleet management.?

While flights are on hiatus and with more employees working from home, ground transport ¨C and particularly the ¡®grey fleet¡¯ of employees using their own cars for work and claiming mileage reimbursement ¨C has for many become the primary mode of business travel.?

It should be in the spotlight like never before as our experience is that grey fleet costs can spiral if not closely controlled.?

Many employees still have to move around even through lockdowns and quarantines. Where the car was once largely used for the last mile of a much longer journey, it is now suddenly the focus of travel buyers¡¯ attention.?

The challenge is that for many managers used to analysing ¡®hotel attachment¡¯, where overnight stays were booked at the same time as flights to maximise efficiencies, measuring or managing the ground transport attachment (where rental cars, taxis and rideshare are combined into the mix)?hasn¡¯t typically been a focus in the past.

The challenges of the grey fleet
When employees don¡¯t have a company car ¨C a situation that is much more commonplace outside the UK where the ¡®company car culture¡¯ is less prevalent ¨C managers need to ensure their people travel in a way that is fiscally prudent as well as safe and secure to meet corporate duty of care.?

Controlling this travel environment has become a lot harder due to Covid-19 because there are now concerns over the use of public transport, rideshare programmes and taxis. Many employees prefer to be in a car on their own for their safety and wellbeing.?

The issue is that using their personally owned grey fleet car can bring risks and difficulties for the employer, especially where it includes cross-border travel in continental Europe.?

What happens if an employee based in Paris drives on a business trip to Brussels in their own car and the vehicle breaks down in Belgium? Do they have business-use insurance, and does it cover this journey? Is their breakdown service able to help them on that journey? Are they covered for the cost of repatriation?

In addition, sustainability is an area of potential concern: most personal vehicles are far older and therefore more polluting than modern cars. What is that trip doing to the business¡¯s overall carbon footprint?

This is not just a question of possibly defaulting on the company¡¯s CO2 emissions targets. If an employee is driving into a city with a Clean Air or Low Emissions Zone in a grey fleet car with a high CO2 rating, the cost to the business can be considerable ¨C especially if the employee is not aware of the rules and there are fines.

A more thoughtful approach to ground transportation
One of the tactical solutions to these challenges is short- or long-term rental. Mileage reimbursement can be surprisingly expensive per mile/kilometre for private cars, while rental cars are modern, low-emission and well equipped with the latest safety equipment to reduce employer risk.?

Rental businesses are also introducing enhanced vehicle cleaning regimes to ensure that vehicles are thoroughly sanitised and cleaned between each rental.

The overarching need is for businesses to review their travel policy. But currently very few have such a policy in place or go into enough detail in their rental tenders.

Multinational companies with offices in multiple countries are more likely than ever to need a policy that covers the issues involved in driving either domestically or internationally for work, involving HR and risk as well as fleet and business travel teams in its design.?

As a result, the onus is on travel managers to quickly educate themselves on the issues involved with grey fleet and gather the necessary data on how their people travel. A notable?challenge is that these costs are ¡®hidden¡¯ ¨C so they need technology to measure them. Businesses also need to act quickly because jumping into one¡¯s own car is such an easy default setting.

Travel managers can help their employees understand the challenges as well. That way employees can begin to modify their behaviour and take a more thoughtful approach to business travel.?

Whether people are travelling to an office five miles away from their home, or a site in another country entirely, the current circumstances mean that it¡¯s likely that they will be doing so by car. It makes sense to ensure that those trips are planned and managed as effectively and efficiently as a flight or train ride.