According to Chas Ball, policy director of Carplus, there are 150,000 car club members in the UK and the numbers are growing with many larger SMEs and big corporations expressing an interest.

But Ball says that the financial assessment is difficult as there are great number of factors that need to be considered.

One company that has used car clubs to great effect is Leeds-based structural engineering firm Arup.

Expenditure on its three pool cars was £17,000 a year when fuel, maintenance, parking, depreciation and administration costs were included.

After using WhizzGo car club for a year, essential staff mobility costs were calculated at £5000, a saving of £12,000.

Car sharing

Car sharing – or car pooling, lift sharing or ride sharing – is where two or more people share a car to travel.

This has an environmental impact by reducing the number of vehicles on the road and easing congestion.

For the employees it is a way of sharing the costs of travelling thus reducing the financial burden of getting to work.

There are several car share schemes operating in the UK and staff can join the free open access group on these companies’ websites or employers can set up a restricted access group for its employees.

Although staff will still be able to choose to search from the public scheme if they wish, the system restricts journey data and matches to within its organisation. Some employers prefer the added security this offers.

Often car sharing is presented alongside other travel options such as walking, cycling and public transport promoting the environmental benefits to employees.

Public transport

There is a very good public transport network available in the UK.

It may not be the best solution in every business case but there are many instances when it can, and often, does prove to be the best choice.

And whether this takes the form of trains, planes or some other type of public transport, advance booking can realise substantial savings.

The bottom line

When it comes to direct comparisons between fleet vehicles and pool cars, privately-owned vehicles or even using a car club, it is not easy to estimate exactly how large a saving can be made or precisely when it would be beneficial to use one of these alternatives – there are simply too many factors that need to be calculated.

“There are no hard and fast answers, as break-even points vary from car to car, driver to driver and trip to trip,” says Paul Jackson, managing director of fuel and mileage audit specialist TMC.

“The key to comparing pool cars, and other alternatives, against company or grey fleet cars is pence-per-mile data.

“Businesses should be logging – and checking – every business mile in any case, as they currently run a high risk of attracting the interest of HMRC if they don’t.

"Fleets that don’t have comprehensive, audited data on mileage and associated costs such as fuel and mileage expense payments are effectively in the dark about any of their travel options.

“But good mileage cost data gives you an indispensable benchmark against which to compare journeys in pool or hire cars.

"Then you can set policies to ensure that employees use these options cost-effectively.”

Case study: Environment Agency

The Environment Agency was looking to meet strict core travel objectives which included reducing business mileage and lowering both the environmental impact of its travel and costs.

Enterprise was able to assist by using its Grey Fleet Toolkit to analyse the use of grey fleet vehicles within the agency.

By using the toolkit’s calculator, the Environment Agency was able to identify the point at which vehicle hire became cost effective.

This is done by comparing the grey fleet profile against the same trips in a rental vehicle and identifying the carbon and cost savings.

In the Environment Agency’s case, the break-even point was calculated at 75 miles; at this point, vehicle hire becomes a more cost-effective solution.

As part of the agency’s travel policy, any journey exceeding 75 miles has to be conducted in a rental vehicle and all grey fleet mileage claims will be reimbursed only up to this distance.