INSURANCE giant Royal London Mutual Insurance Society is to move about 1,200 staff out of company cars and into a cash-for-car scheme. All business-need drivers will be hit by the change, and the future of company cars for perk-car users is being reviewed. The move will make the fleet manager's role at the firm redundant.

The changeover is expected to be completed by the end of the year, using multi-marque leasing firm Alphabet. Royal London says that none of its employees will lose out financially, and Alphabet will calculate the personal value of a company car to each driver. Every employee will then receive a choice of 'benchmark' cars, based on the value they derived from their former company car. Mike Baldry, chief operating officer of Alphabet, said: 'This scheme and others in the pipeline are a real step forward in alternative provision for business car users.'

Mark Paget, information manager of Royal London, said: 'We set demanding criteria for a fleet replacement scheme. They included reducing the total cost of the fleet while protecting the productivity of essential car users; winning buy-in from staff and delivering a less time-consuming solution to the human resources department; eliminating exposure to risk and retaining control over essential aspects of business car usage.'