COMPANY car drivers will be tempted to 'chase miles' as a means of avoiding benefit-in-kind tax, whether the company car tax regime is based on business or private miles. And more than 80% of company car drivers and almost 70% of fleet managers are also unlikely to downsize - even if taxation encouraged them to do so - according to a survey of 220 fleet managers by leasing and fleet management company Fleetlease.

Meanwhile, 95% of company car drivers and 79.5% of fleet managers say they would not give up their company car and, instead, buy their own car and claim a mileage allowance from their employer. The responses - the survey questioned fleet managers and asked them to answer the same questions on behalf of their 10,000-plus drivers - have been sent to Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown as he prepares his March 17 Budget .

Fleetlease managing director Rob Whalley said: 'The survey shows that any attempts to discourage the private use of company car are unlikely to succeed. Increasing taxes and penalising drivers on a system based on the proportion of private miles travelled, rather than business miles, will continue to mean drivers still chasing more miles and not help the problem of traffic congestion.'