Fines and penalties incurred by fleet drivers hit £15.3m

The percentage of company car and van drivers incurring penalties for minor offences, such as bus lane and parking misdemeanours, rose 22.7% year-on-year, according to annual figures from Lex Autolease.

The UK’s largest leasing provider analysed data from more than 377,000 company cars and vans to reveal that drivers racked up a £15.3 million bill in fines and penalties in 2018, an increase of almost a sixth (15.6%) compared with the previous year.

The research also found that the percentage of drivers caught by bus lane cameras rose by 36.2% in 2018 compared with the previous year, with the proportion being fined for junction box, red routes and other similar infringements up by 5.7% over the same period.

Meanwhile, the percentage of company car drivers committing parking offences saw an increase of 25.1% in 2018, with private car parks accounting for more than three quarters (77.4%) of the value of all parking fines, which came to a total of £5.93m, compared with the £1.73m collected in charges from public parking.

Guy Mason, operations director at Lex Autolease, said: “It's clear from our analysis that ‘minor’ offences, such as the mistakes made by drivers when parking, can cost businesses heavily.

“The increase in motoring fines over the past 12 months could be down to a range of different factors, including increased regulation on the roads, changing driver behaviour and the more rigorous enforcement of penalties by local government.

“With this in mind, we’re encouraging customers to take proactive steps where they can to help bring down the bill, such as investing in driver education and training to help minimise avoidable costs like parking fines and bus lane infringements.”

Lex Autolease is the UK’s leading fleet management and funding specialist, and was responsible for around 1 in 24 registrations of the UK’s new cars and light commercial vehicles registered in 2017.

It currently manages over 380,000 cars and commercial vehicles in the UK, including more than 18,000 alternatively-fuelled vehicles.

* includes all “traffic” offences such as junction box, red route etc.