YOU'VE got all the facts and figures on the future of company car tax - now get to work making them work to your advantage and clean up your fleet. That was the message from Stephen Timms, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, as he addressed more than 100 fleet managers at a post-Budget seminar, The Fleet Operators Guide to the Budget, organised by the Association of Car Fleet Operators.

He said: 'The tax measures we have taken send a strong environmental message to fleets that the way to pay less tax is through cleaner vehicles. You now need to make drivers aware of the savings available and persuade them to use fuel-efficient vehicles. Whichever fuel is the best will be down to the judgement of the industry and it must keep up to date with cleaner fuels and vehicles which are arriving all the time.'

His comments were echoed by ACFO director Stewart Whyte, who said: 'We have been presented with a timetable showing the agenda which will dictate the way fleets do business in future. If you let staff and managers do nothing to stop higher tax bills, then drivers will not blame themselves when it happens - they will blame you.'