SALES of specialist software to medium-sized fleets are rising as companies attempt to keep pace with new taxation and legal responsibilities affecting company vehicles.

Changes to benefit-in-kind taxation and concerns over ensuring employers are meeting their duty of care to drivers are encouraging them to invest in fleet software to keep a close eye on their policies.

Jason Francis, managing director of cfc solutions, said: 'Medium-sized fleets are perhaps the ones being heavily affected by the ways in which their responsibilities are changing, especially the many at this level which do not have a full-time fleet manager in place or who employ a relatively junior member of staff to run the fleet.

'Our recent experience is that they have a choice facing them - either outsource the fleet operation to an external fleet management company or ensure systems are in place to give better structure to the in-house fleet management team. Many fleets are finding that fleet software is an efficient and cost-effective way of doing the latter.'

Fleet software for medium fleets can provide easy access to benefit-in-kind taxation information, show the difference in cost between the new and the old systems and provide drivers with a detailed projection of their tax costs, he said.

Likewise, it can provide an infrastructure to show that the fleet manager and directors of a company have fulfilled their legal requirements when it comes to proving that vehicles have been properly maintained and drivers equipped with appropriate skills.