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The Business Motoring Week, October 26, 2018

The Business Motoring Week, October 26, 2018: what the editor would like to see in the Budget; plus killer clocks; flexible van carrying ability with new Combo; and McLaren Speedtail
company car tax budget

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26 October 2018

Budget: just give me sensible company car tax Mr Hammond

The Business Motoring Week October 26, 2018I DON’T want to spoil your Friday – or your weekend come to that – but on Monday there is a Budget. I know. Mondays are fairly bad at the best of times, but the Right Honourable PH delivering his Autumn Budget. Well…

Worse still, the clocks go back this Sunday. But more of that later.

So, the Budget.

Lots of people have been asking for lots of things from the Chancellor, understandably, but I just want this: make company car tax equitable.

Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV
Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV – a company car tax band of 12% for 2019/20 please Mr Hammond

Bring forward by a year the ultra low emission tax band incentives. That would mean the best-selling Plug-in Hybrid Vehicle (PHEV) Mitsubishi Outlander having a company car tax band of 12%. Which, given the Government has just swiped the vehicle’s Plug-in Car Grant incentive is the least Mr Hammond could do.

VW e-Golf
Volkswagen e-Golf: this great green car could be on monthly BIK from £11

More importantly, it would massively incentivise zero emission electric vehicles. So, this great e-Golf I’m running (above) would drop from the 16% company car tax band to just 2%. In terms of company car tax that would decrease the lowest monthly benefit in kind payable from £87 to just £11.

Audi A6: diesel offers high mileage company car drivers brilliant economy
Audi A6: diesel offers high mileage company car drivers brilliant economy

Finally diesels. Remove the 4% surcharge – at least on the latest generation of Euro 6 diesels. If that’s a step too far, Mr Hammond, how about halving it to 2%?

Diesels have a really important part to play in reducing CO2 emissions. They are just so efficient. I’ve been driving the latest Audi A6 diesel and it has fantastic economy. On a business trip to Wales this week I averaged 64mpg for the journey, taking my current overall mpg average to over 57mpg. That’s massively impressive.

So diesels have a part to play for both large and small fleet high mileage drivers – don’t excessively penalise them.

Clocks go back and visibility drops
We have this to look forward to on the commute home once the clocks go back

Stop the killer clocks going back

Sounds like I’m on a rant. But I think this is so important. This weekend the clocks go back. Kids go back to school (mostly) on Monday and guess what? Those lighter evenings suddenly become dark; rain refracts the tail lights in the gloom; visibility worsens. And…

Guess what? Accident rates peak. Year after year after year after….

New analysis from telematics car insurance firm insurethebox, reveals a 34% increase in accident rates among motorists driving between 5-8pm in the weeks directly following the October clock change.

IAM RoadSmart reckons that the likelihood of a child being involved in a crash on the way home from school increases by 20% over the winter months. A fifth for goodness sake!

In 2009, the Department for Transport’s consultation paper ‘A Safer Way: Making Britain’s Roads the Safest in the World’ stated that moving to lighter evenings would prevent about 80 deaths on the road a year.

In other words, stop the killer clocks going back. Perhaps Mr Hammond could include this in his Budget, too?

Vauxhall Combo with FlexThrough feature
Vauxhall Combo with FlexCargo feature allows long items such as ladders to be carried safely and securely inside the van

New Vauxhall Combo – first drive

If you want an example of how to make a small van fit for bigger purposes then it has to be the new Combo. There’s a brilliant new feature called FlexCargo.

It’s an extendable area into the passenger compartment that allows trades and the like to carry ladders, pipes and so on up to 3m long. And that’s just on the standard wheelbase model. I’ve had a chance to drive the new van. Click here to read more.

Leasing Broker Awards 2019Leasing Broker Conference and Awards video

For those in the leasing industry who were at our Leasing Broker Conference and Awards event in Birmingham, here’s a video to remind you of what went on.

For those of you who weren’t, well here’s a video to show you what you missed!

McLaren Speedtail leaked on Twitter

So here’s a nice Friday treat to sign off with. The fabulous looking McLaren Speedtail – pictures were leaked on Twitter

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Ralph Morton

Ralph Morton

Ralph Morton is an award-winning journalist and the founder of Business Car Manager (now renamed Business Motoring). Ralph writes extensively about the car and van leasing industry as well as wider fleet and company car issues. A former editor of What Car?, Ralph is a vastly experienced writer and editor and has been writing about the automotive sector for over 35 years.

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