INTERNATIONAL chemical and healthcare giant Bayer has introduced a personal contract purchase scheme for its fleet drivers as part of a bid to slash the cost of its company car fleet and save drivers tax. More than 1,300 staff are being offered the chance to move out of company cars into a contract purchase scheme offered by Fleetlease.

The move is part of a wholesale review of the fleet by the company which has included slashing the fleet choice list from 20 manufacturers to just four - BMW, Vauxhall, Volvo and Volkswagen. A key factor in the firm's decision has been to give fleet drivers a chance to opt out of company cars to protect themselves from potential tax increases under the new emissions-based company car tax regime from 2002.

Under the new tax regime, launched in April next year, drivers will pay tax on a combination of a car's list price and its carbon dioxide emissions.

Audrey Milne, group fleet manager at Bayer, said the firm was looking to save money on running the fleet, but the personal contract purchase scheme was not expected to bring the biggest savings. She said: 'We are offering drivers the option of a PCP scheme to help them in light of the changes to benefit-in-kind tax. We also wanted to cut back the cost of running such a large company vehicle fleet. The main savings will not come from the PCPs, but from reducing the number of manufacturers supplying us to four.'