LIFE assurance and pension company Canada Life is replacing its company car scheme with Arriva Automotive Solutions' personal motoring product. This radical change follows Canada Life's acquisition of Albany Life last year, which left it with two different car policies.

Paul Chatfield, Canada Life's director of human resources, said: 'Equalising these meant either downgrading the company car entitlement for 50% of the employees who were eligible for this benefit, or substantially increasing the costs by upgrading the entitlement for the other 50%. Working with Arriva we were able to provide the means for all company car drivers to obtain the better of the two fleet entitlements while reducing the costs.'

The switch from company car to cash allowance will be mandatory for Canada Life's 220 largely 'perk' drivers, although as an interim measure, Arriva will structure a sale and leaseback arrangement for Canada Life, running the cars on contract hire for three months. Drivers will then receive a cash allowance which they can use to fund their existing cars on Arriva's Personal Motoring Plan, start a personal contract for a new car of their choice, or simply keep the money. More than half of Canada Life's drivers are expected to take advantage of Arriva's PMP.