• There are an estimated 4 to 5 million grey fleet vehicles on the road in the UK. These are privately owned vehicles that are used by employees in the course of their work. The number of company owned fleet vehicles is much lower at 1.51 million.
• Every council in the United Kingdom relies upon grey fleet drivers to conduct their business and over half of all government departments are similarly dependent upon their grey fleet drivers to operate effectively.
• It is estimated that 20% of grey fleet drivers are not properly insured to use their vehicles for business purposes.
• 33% of Employers admit that they do not check that their grey fleet driver’s insurance covered them for work use.
• 63% of employers do not check the roadworthiness of employee owned vehicles used for work. 43% don’t check that the vehicle has a current MOT.
• 30% of road accidents will involve an employee driving for their work in a grey fleet vehicle.
• One NHS Community Trust (Sussex) calculated that their grey fleet was covering 6 million miles per year at a cost of £3 million. Surveys at other NHS Trusts show similar costs.
• The legal obligations owed to the grey fleet driver are in essence the same as those owed to the driver of a company owned or operated vehicle. This means that the employer needs to ensure that the driver is properly qualified (licensed) to drive their vehicle and the latter is reasonably safe and suitable for the task in hand. Failure to take steps to meet this obligation is now punishable with significantly increased levels of fine (new guidelines came into effect in February 2016) and could also affect insurance cover and costs under new legislation due to take effect from August 2016.
• In the 2016 Fleet News Fleet Heroes awards, all three winners reported significant savings by introducing effective grey fleet management practices. Reported savings ranged from £94,000 to £500,000 per year.
