Can an employer insist an employee uses their own car for Business?

Woodland_Fairy

I am concerned about a colleague of mine.

He needs a car to carry out his job which involes travel all over the UK. He gets paid 25p per mile for travel expenses. He earns £15,000 a year for full time work and has been with us a year.

Recently his car broke down and he has been having a nightmare to get it fixed. 3 weeks later it is still not fixed and so he is trying to source a new car.

Our employer is getting impatient about it as he is having to pay for public transport to get him to jobs, or pick him up. My colleague is doing his best and has got lifts from his Mum (who has terminal cancer), Dad (who has taken days off work to help him) and also his girlfriend (who hates motorway driving).

He is desperately trying to find a new car on his days off between working, but two options have fallen through unfortunately. I think he's had about 3 days off, not including Sundays, to try to buy a car in the last few weeks.

My concern is that our employer is getting frustrated, and told me today that it was a condition of the job that my colleague had a car. I'm pretty sure this isn't in his contract, but yes he does need a car. Does anyone know what rights he has? I don't want him to lose his job because of this.

Undervalued

Woodland_Fairy wrote: »

I am concerned about a colleague of mine.

He needs a car to carry out his job which involes travel all over the UK. He gets paid 25p per mile for travel expenses. He earns £15,000 a year for full time work and has been with us a year.

Recently his car broke down and he has been having a nightmare to get it fixed. 3 weeks later it is still not fixed and so he is trying to source a new car.

Our employer is getting impatient about it as he is having to pay for public transport to get him to jobs, or pick him up. My colleague is doing his best and has got lifts from his Mum (who has terminal cancer), Dad (who has taken days off work to help him) and also his girlfriend (who hates motorway driving).

He is desperately trying to find a new car on his days off between working, but two options have fallen through unfortunately. I think he's had about 3 days off, not including Sundays, to try to buy a car in the last few weeks.

My concern is that our employer is getting frustrated, and told me today that it was a condition of the job that my colleague had a car. I'm pretty sure this isn't in his contract, but yes he does need a car. Does anyone know what rights he has? I don't want him to lose his job because of this.

With less than two years service he can be dismissed for any (non discriminatory) reason or no reason at all. So, for this reason alone then yes, they can insist.

getmore4less

He is subsidizing the employer if only getting 25ppm so no wonder they are getting annoyed.

Also he should look carefully at his hours and travel time to make sure he is being paid at least the min wage.

Silvertabby

... and his car insurance must cover him for business travel (or whatever it is called).

Undervalued

getmore4less wrote: »

He is subsidizing the employer if only getting 25ppm so no wonder they are getting annoyed.

Also he should look carefully at his hours and travel time to make sure he is being paid at least the min wage.

Yes, if it calculates to be below the NMW then he could insist on less hours or more money. However that is unlikely to keep him employed.

Ultimately it depends on how useful he is to his employer or how easy he would be to replace. 25p per mile just about covers the cost of doing a few extra miles in a car you are running anyway. Any significant business mileage at that rate is losing him money.

TELLIT01

Your colleague is being shafted on the mileage rate. See this https://www.gov.uk/expenses-and-benefits-business-travel-mileage/rules-for-tax

Ozzuk

TELLIT01 wrote: »

Your colleague is being shafted on the mileage rate. See this https://www.gov.uk/expenses-and-benefits-business-travel-mileage/rules-for-tax

I thought employers could pay less and leave it up to the employee to claim the difference? I've had many contracts only being paid 25/30p/mile.

Could be wrong but it seems to be backed up in the article you posted...

TBagpuss

On a practical level, could his mum, dad or partrner temporarily add him to their insurance and let him drive their car? If his dad works normalbusiness hours would it be practical for your friend to drop his dad off at work,get to his jobs during the day and the nor either him or his mum to pick dad up from work? That might solve the issue temporarily.

short term, a hire car may be less expensive than extra insuance or lots of buses and taxis
Ultimately, however, I don't think your employer can explicitly say 9if not already in his contract) that he has to have a car, but they can say that the nature of the job means he has to be able to get to work, and get to jobs, on time and that may well in ractice mean he needs to have a car.

getmore4less

Ozzuk wrote: »

I thought employers could pay less and leave it up to the employee to claim the difference? I've had many contracts only being paid 25/30p/mile.

Could be wrong but it seems to be backed up in the article you posted...

They can pay whatever they like.

Tax relief on the difference so for this person a max of 4ppm extra for the first 10k so a max of £400

Undervalued

TBagpuss wrote: »

On a practical level, could his mum, dad or partrner temporarily add him to their insurance and let him drive their car? If his dad works normalbusiness hours would it be practical for your friend to drop his dad off at work,get to his jobs during the day and the nor either him or his mum to pick dad up from work? That might solve the issue temporarily.

short term, a hire car may be less expensive than extra insuance or lots of buses and taxis
Ultimately, however, I don't think your employer can explicitly say 9if not already in his contract) that he has to have a car, but they can say that the nature of the job means he has to be able to get to work, and get to jobs, on time and that may well in ractice mean he needs to have a car.

By default he wouldn't be insured for business use. OK, obviously they could make specific insurance arrangements so that he was properly covered but the normal is social, domestic and pleasure for the named drives plus the policyholder in person in connection with their work.

takman

Undervalued wrote: »

Ultimately it depends on how useful he is to his employer or how easy he would be to replace. 25p per mile just about covers the cost of doing a few extra miles in a car you are running anyway. Any significant business mileage at that rate is losing him money.

.
Although i agree that the milage rate is poor compared to other companies my car has cost me less than 18p a mile over its life including all costs such as fuel, repairs, insurance and tax plus also the original cost of the car.
So its possible to keep motoring costs lower than 25p per mile even if he only used the car for work.


But he doesn't seem to be trying very hard to get a new car. Only two options over three days he has had off. He should be researching cars and planning atleast 3 different ones to view in a day and if the first one falls through he will have 2 others to view.