As the UK continues its journey on the road to zero, government incentives are making the prospect of electrifying a fleet extremely attractive and are helping businesses to go green. Electric car schemes, especially using salary sacrifice, are increasing in popularity and are also enabling businesses to offer vehicles to the wider employee population as a staff retention tool. But is it right for your business? And how do you launch a new EV car scheme? Christopher Caddick, head of business development at JCT600 Vehicle Leasing Solutions (VLS) discusses the company’s customer journey.
Consultation: it all starts here
Electrifying your fleet can create some vast cost savings for both business and employees. However, it’s worth highlighting it may not be right for every business just yet. This is exactly why we always start with consultation; whether you’re a long-standing customer or new to JCT600 VLS, we take the time to understand and review your business, fleet or employee benefit objectives and requirements. Through this process, it enables us to provide recommendations and a completely tailored solution to meet your business and employees’ needs.
Our ongoing consultative approach is rooted in both the whole life cost (WLC) of the vehicle provision to the employee and the total cost of ownership (TCO) of the vehicle, including “non-rental costs” and operational requirements.
We work closely with our customer projects team to apply any changes and ensure a right first-time implementation.
Implementation: right first-time approach
If you’re launching a new scheme or making changes to your existing fleet operations, we have an efficient and effective implementation process in place to guarantee a successful customer and driver journey. There are several steps within implementation that are critical for the success of your new scheme, especially if you’re making the transition to electric.
Communication and education form a fundamental part of the implementation process. Your dedicated project team will work with you to develop a tailored plan to communicate the new policy to employees, as well as creating the tools to educate them on the scheme. Depending on the channels available to you, and what you think will be right for your employees, this could be how-to videos housed within our driver portal, Origo, to browse in their own time, or it could be live webinars with one of our experts at set times. How you communicate and educate staff will be completely unique to your business and we work with you to provide the right tools in order to do that.
Another key part of the implementation process is getting you and your employees set up with the right systems. We use Origo, our state-of-the-art driver system to easily deliver all car policies, from simple single schemes to complex multi-scheme policies, within a unique and bespoke employee journey. The system is adaptable to customers’ individual requirements, including branding, policy, and documentation.
Employee portal: making informed decisions
Origo is a single portal for employees to access all the services they require on existing vehicles, order new vehicles, and track any existing orders. Designed to display side by side comparisons of user defined vehicles within their assigned policies and grade structure, Origo provides each driver with a clear comparison between vehicles and full knowledge of the vehicles’ cost implications.
Our online driver portal also offers a fully auditable process, including date and time stamping of driver acceptance of your policy as a whole and key statements of your choosing.
As part of the employee’s cost comparison, the employee can calculate their running costs, including flexing the mpg of ICE and PHEV vehicles, as well as calculating a pence per mile running cost for EVs based on the vehicle efficiency and the employee’s charging pattern. All of this enables your employees to make fully informed, cost-effective decisions based on their individual needs.
Ongoing support
Once you’ve successfully launched your new scheme our team is available to offer support every step of the way from ordering a vehicle to assistance in the event of an incident.
We’re passionate about building long-standing relationships with our customers, providing ongoing driver support and consultation. Through this true partnership approach, we have an in-depth understanding of your business and continually review whether your current scheme is still meeting your objectives or if an improvement is required to keep driving your business forward.
Are you ready?
Many businesses have started to move part, or all, of their fleets to be more electric due to the vast savings that can be achieved. The low Benefit in Kind charges on electric vehicles and the re-popularisation of salary sacrifice schemes, has also led to businesses being able to offer a company car to a wider employee population, with many now using it as a staff retention tool rather than just to traditional perk or business need populations.
While transitioning your fleet to be more electric could be hugely beneficial for some businesses, it may still not be right for every business just yet. This is where working closely with a provider that takes the time to understand your business and tailor a solution to your needs will really make a difference. Find a provider that wants to be your partner, delivers you the best people to consult and support, backed by leading technology, and you can be confident you have the perfect scheme for you and your employees.
