Case study: Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue

Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service (MWWFRS) become the first fire authority in Britain to embrace a salary sacrifice car scheme as part of its flexible staff benefits offering last November.

The service appointed Automotive Leasing, the public sector division of LeasePlan, to deliver its SalaryPlan scheme which aims to reduce CO2 by encouraging staff to drive fuel efficient cars.

Eligible staff can now opt to exchange a proportion of their salary in return for a new fuel efficient car at a preferential rate in addition to benefiting from a preferential rate associated with lower carbon vehicles.

Mydrian Harries , head of corporate risk at MWWFRS, says: “SalaryPlan allows us to offer a valued benefit to our employees that is not only cost neutral to our organisation but also supports our environmental commitments.

“Many staff are already excited by the significant savings available, as well as the benefits of leasing a brand new and
fully-maintained car.

“We’ve been delighted by the response from staff regarding this new employee benefit since the scheme launched and look forward to seeing strong participation levels in time.”

The service selected SalaryPlan as the most practicable and cost-effective scheme tendered under Sector Treasury Services’ robust framework for salary sacrifice car schemes.

Case study: The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust

The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust became the latest hospital trust to launch a salary sacrifice scheme for its employees earlier this year.

The trust views the scheme as a way of cutting costs while ensuring duty of care when employees are using their own vehicles for work purposes.

In February, it officially started working with Tusker to ensure that its 6,165 eligible employees could drive a new car.

The SalarySacrifice4Cars (SS4C) scheme is expected to deliver substantial cost savings to the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and is available to all its permanent employees.

Tony Stanyard, head of procurement, says: “We originally implemented the car salary sacrifice scheme to deliver cost savings to the trust while providing staff with a car leasing scheme that was flexible and designed to meet their motoring needs.

“We also wanted to ensure that our employees have access to a safe, well maintained and fully insured new car.

From the trust’s perspective, implementing the car salary sacrifice scheme has been relatively simple, with most of
the work being completed electronically.

“The initial levels of interest have been very encouraging and we look forward to a continuing positive result as the roll-out of the scheme continues.”

The trust began working with Tusker following the evaluation of a number of providers under the Health Trust Europe Framework.