FLEET managers will have to focus on cars' carbon dioxide emissions to advise their drivers on the most tax-efficient vehicles under the new company car tax regime scheduled for April 2002. This will create clear winners and losers, despite being revenue neutral to the Inland Revenue, warned Stewart Whyte, managing director of Fleet Audits, who addressed the recent Fleet News Budget Breakfast courtesy of a sponsorship arrangement with Kwik-Fit Fleet.

'There are no plans from Prime Minister Tony Blair to squeeze the company car sector until the pips squeak,' he said. 'So the threats that say the company car is dead are rubbish, but individuals will see big changes in the way their tax bill is calculated, and there will be a redistribution of the tax burden. Individuals in a thirsty car, come the changes, will see their tax bills go up sharply, but there will also be people who see a substantial reduction in their tax bill.'

Whyte advised fleet managers to re-examine their allocation lists with CO2 emissions in mind, and to start preparing their fleet software to cope with CO2 records. He produced figures which showed that the average fleet car produces between 160 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre and 220g/km, and suggested that these boundaries could be the approximate thresholds of a sliding benefit-in-kind tax scale under the new tax regime.