Royal Mail trial delivers new ‘fair’ mileage rate for EV drivers

A new reimbursement tool from Paua is promising to compensate electric company car drivers fairly for their business mileage.

Paua Reimburse has been designed to bridge the compensation gap for electric vehicle (EV) drivers, who feel short-changed by an advisory electricity rate (AER) of just 9 pence per mile (ppl) when charging at home or on the public network. 

The new, digitally integrated solution officially launches today (Tuesday, March 12) following a 16-month trial with Royal Mail.   

Niall Riddell, Paua’s CEO and co-founder, says that the technology has been “designed with leading businesses for leading businesses” and represents a “significant step towards ensuring fair compensation and fostering the transition to EVs”.

Paua Reimburse technology is built to work with the company’s EV charge card solution, which offers access to a roaming network of 44,000 connectors, including 70% of all rapid chargers.

Company car drivers access the Paua mobile app to manage all of their reimbursements.

Andre Pinho, Paua’s chief technology officer and co-founder, explains that home energy tariffs, vehicle details and HR policies are recorded into the platform, leaving drivers to declare their business mileage.

An algorithm then determines the driver’s reimbursement rate based on how much they charged at home, how much they charged on the public network and at what cost, as well as what was personal and business mileage.

“Drivers are also supplied with a Paua card, so they can charge at public chargers with no upfront costs,” added Pinho.

Paua says that the HMRC compliant technology, which is charger agnostic, ensures that all drivers, regardless of the vehicle they drive, the tariff they select or the charger they use, can benefit.

Riddell explained: “To allow maximum utility, Paua Reimburse includes a number of innovative features; upload of external receipts to ensure 100% coverage of public EV charge, algorithms that work with all home chargers including three-pin plugs, and automated calculation of commuting mileage to avoid overcompensating business miles.”

Ensuring fair compensation of business drivers for their business miles is crucial for encouraging the switch to EV and is a problem seen by all employers across the industry, he argues.

“Paua Reimburse is set to redefine the landscape of EV driver compensation, strengthening Paua's position as an industry pioneer.”

Paua Reimburse is being prioritised to existing Paua customers and is available from today. The company is planning webinars for fleets interested in the solution on Friday (March 15th) and Friday, March 22nd.    

Interestingly, Paua has also developed its solution further to pay what it calls a reverse reimbursement rate, whereby the employer covers all charging costs incurred by the employee, but then the driver has to reimburse the employer for their personal miles at the AER, which is currently 9p per mile.

Pinho acknowledges it can be an expensive methodology, but says it is a great incentive for the employee to switch to electric if they do not have access to a home charger.

Paua is currently speaking to a large fleet where it has switched some 50-60% of its drivers to electric, but is struggling to convert the rest because they may not have a driveway to charge at home and are put off by the high cost of charging on the public network.

Riddell said: “We’ve built a solution which encompasses that public charging challenge and now we’re trying to extend that public charging piece into the other areas where our business customers are having problems.” 

For example, it is also exploring solutions for the sharing of charging facilities at depots so they can be used by different fleets.  

“Paua Reimburse is one example of areas that we are building our capability to support them,” concluded Riddell.