About DB's Company Car?

[whereiscaroline]

I know this is a small problem in the grand scheme of things but would be grateful for views from a neutral standpoint.

DB has a company car with a fuel card. Pays a hefty amount of tax for the privilege, and personal mileage is included in permitted use for both the car and fuel. I'm named on the insurance and provide my driving licence documents to his work every 3 months.

DB barely uses the car, he gets the train to work each day, which his employer pays for.

I have been looking at a job which is a 100 miles round trip from home. Pricing it up, trains will cost me £400 per month.

I suggested to DB that I use his company car for commuting each day, and he carries on getting the train as he has been doing for years. By doing this, we save £400 per month which would be a really helpful amount of money of course.

He has totally lost his rag at this suggestion. Apparently I'd be taking the mickey out of his company (it's a big PLC company, not a small family owned firm, if that makes a difference) by doing this. I do see his point, but my stance is that he is paying £4K a year in tax for private fuel usage, why shouldn't we make the most of that?!

AIBU?

Why don't you just use your own car and he uses the company car?

Ahh boyfriend. I thought it was brother.

Less of a pisstake then

He should check with the company and insurance that it would be allowed and covered under insurance (100 miles daily is very different from local pootling)

As it's all household money it makes sense to ask the question.

Also you just said his has 30k allowance. Wouldnt your commute plus normal school run, pottering around take you over that?

Whyohwhy I suggested this option because I pay for fuel and he doesn't. And to a lesser extent because his car has a 30k PA mileage limit whereas mine has a 12k PA limit.

Fleet Manager here! I've written into our policy that the vehicle has to be available for business use at any time during the working day. We did this as several years ago, exact situation as yours, husband using train, wife dropping kids off and running round in company car during the day. She had a major accident, flipped it into a field and hurt not only her own children but someone else's. Due to the nature of their injuries and because they were a minor, the case went on for nearly a decade as we had to wait and see how life changing the injuries were going to be. The impact on our insurance was huge as the reserve for the insurance claim sat there at every renewal and the costs when it was settled were eye watering.

Might want to check the company policy.

Whilst friends and family may be insured, them using the car for anything other than domestic and pleasure may well be excluded and that includes business and commuting by others.

It's not allowed on the small print of our company agreement. There's a bit about other users but the benefit being primarily for the employee and a 'fair use' element to that.

You could certainly ask though.

Your DB has an incredibly generous deal and is quite rightly not wanting to annoy his employer by taking the piss. I agree that there is a fine line between taking full advantage of a generous deal and taking the piss, but there you are. His employer, his car, his call. YABU

My DH has a company car which I am insured to drive and do if he's away. In theory I could commute to work regularly with it from an insurance point of view however DH would get a huge rap over the knuckles and poss lose car. They audit peoples car use/mileage/fuel.