THE Association of Car Fleet Operators' campaign against car delivery charges could succeed before the autumn. This has been one of the best planned and best resourced ACFO campaigns, and manufacturers have paid close attention.

The Association wrote to all the leading fleet manufacturers calling for the abolition of delivery charges, and to date it has received nine board level replies and two replies from fleet directors.

While all parties accept that delivery charges bear no relation to the actual cost of delivery, the difficulty is arriving at an agreement over a standard charge for the process of transportation, road fund licence, number plates, PDI and road test, and a full tank of petrol. And then deciding whether this should be included in the list price, or whether manufacturers should also publish separate on-the-road prices.

ACFO director Stewart Whyte believes once one major manufacturer scraps delivery charges the rest will soon follow. Companies could help the campaign by moving away from list price based car choice to more sophisticated and efficient fleet policies based on wholelife costs. This would reassure manufacturers that incorporating the current delivery fee into their list price will not move their cars outside the artificial boundaries on choice lists. Company car drivers will be unaffected because benefit in kind tax is based on an inclusive figure of list price and delivery charge.