DNC abandons contract hire for ECO scheme

Eligible staff at Delaware North Companies (DNC) are using vehicles supplied by GKL Leasing under an employee car ownership scheme (ECO) after the company moved away from a standard contract hire scheme.

Katie Minchin, DNC’s UK corporate head of HR, said: “We have not used an ECO scheme before but decided to use one to provide flexibility of choice for employees eligible for company cars. Additionally, it acts as a retention tool for our business as the flexible approach offers eligible staff much greater choice whilst being tax-efficient for the company.”

ECO schemes give the employee effective ownership of the vehicle but allow companies to retain control of the fleet.

But as GKL’s general manager John Stevenson said ECO schemes can be “very complex”.