The scale of abuse by some grey fleet drivers taking advantage of the lack of checks on their mileage claims has been highlighted.

Grey fleet drivers often travel tens of thousands of miles a year on business trips in their own vehicles. This costs companies thousands of pounds in mileage expenses (Fleet News April 29) when claims are paid at the Government’s AMAP rate of 40p per mile.

While some companies are now paying below AMAP (see page 2), the majority still pay 40ppm, which effectively incentivises grey fleet drivers to clock up as many miles as they can.

Grey fleet use must be managed effectively to ensure not only that mileage claims are correct but also that the vehicles employees are driving are safe, fit for purpose and fit with organisations’ environmental policies.

However, research by Arval has found that one grey fleet driver claimed for 900 business miles on a quad bike, while another claimed for business mileage for driving a Jungheinrich forklift truck.

Other vehicles include a high-polluting Ferrari 360 Spider, which emits 440g of CO2 every kilometre and only manages 14 miles to the gallon, and an Austin 7, which has no airbags and no disc brakes.

In light of its findings, Arval is calling on organisations to take tighter control of their grey fleet.

“Many organisations are placing a strong focus on their environmental policies at the moment but if they don’t know what vehicles their employees are driving and claiming business mileage on, they could be ignoring a large area of inefficiency,” said Mike Waters, director of market insight at Arval.

“Without controls in place, employees could literally be driving anything and claiming business miles against it. The consequences of ignoring this are costly particularly at a time of rising fuel prices and not just in environmental and financial terms, by law a company has a duty of care obligation to ensure its employees are safe - it’s simply not worth the risk.”

Unless companies have control measures in place, their grey fleet could be costing them from an environmental and a health and safety point of view. 

Arval recommends pool cars, daily rental or a fully expensed company car are all options that should be explored as they can all be effectively managed.

Where grey fleet use is part of company culture, mileage rates should be tackled.Arval says it has discovered companies that pay double AMAP – 80ppm – which means employees are making money on every mile they travel in their own car. Using fuel cards can help in this area.

Find out if you could save on what your fleet is paying in petrol, visit the fleet news petrol prices page for more information.

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