Interesting thread... my uncle used to get company fleet vehicles for his job (he was in sales). They always had crappy domestics to use. I was talking to him one day and asked him why can't they choose anything else and he said the same thing you said, HQ chooses the model, etc.
But when you get down to the nuts and bolts of it, all the models they chose were within a few bucks of each other on a per month lease. He went back to them (after getting fleet vehicles for 10+ years) and ask them to change the policy because he hated the fleet cars. They did change it the following year.
What they did was the company had a set amount they budgeted for every employee, a set amount for car itself (lease), the insurance, fuel (based on average mpg for mid sized car), repairs, snow tires and the employee could choose whatever he wanted. The set amounts were equivalent to what they were paying the fleet cars so was almost like a flat cost per month that the bean counters came up with. The cars were in the names of the employees and if they left the car went with them as well so the company didn't need to do any disposals on cars. Employees were just given this almost like stipend every month for vehicle costs. If you went small and fuel efficient and cheap on insurance you were saving money on yourself and pocketed the difference. If you went all out and bought a gas hog, the extra over average expense you paid for. This freed up the vehicles to stuff that employees liked to drive. I recall my uncle had a Sienna for 3 years, then a RDX and a M35. Extra amounts paid out of pocket. His co-worker used it to lease out a Porsche Cayene and paid the difference.
I have a different friend who was on a fleet program and all the cars were Ford Edge's or Fusions. 3 years ago they switched to a similar system that my uncle has that reimburses for a certain $$ value every month. He got a Benz C350 with it and paid a bit every month to make up the difference.
Is this something that you are allowed to suggest for your work ?
But when you get down to the nuts and bolts of it, all the models they chose were within a few bucks of each other on a per month lease. He went back to them (after getting fleet vehicles for 10+ years) and ask them to change the policy because he hated the fleet cars. They did change it the following year.
What they did was the company had a set amount they budgeted for every employee, a set amount for car itself (lease), the insurance, fuel (based on average mpg for mid sized car), repairs, snow tires and the employee could choose whatever he wanted. The set amounts were equivalent to what they were paying the fleet cars so was almost like a flat cost per month that the bean counters came up with. The cars were in the names of the employees and if they left the car went with them as well so the company didn't need to do any disposals on cars. Employees were just given this almost like stipend every month for vehicle costs. If you went small and fuel efficient and cheap on insurance you were saving money on yourself and pocketed the difference. If you went all out and bought a gas hog, the extra over average expense you paid for. This freed up the vehicles to stuff that employees liked to drive. I recall my uncle had a Sienna for 3 years, then a RDX and a M35. Extra amounts paid out of pocket. His co-worker used it to lease out a Porsche Cayene and paid the difference.
I have a different friend who was on a fleet program and all the cars were Ford Edge's or Fusions. 3 years ago they switched to a similar system that my uncle has that reimburses for a certain $$ value every month. He got a Benz C350 with it and paid a bit every month to make up the difference.
Is this something that you are allowed to suggest for your work ?
