CONTRACT hire companies and fleet customers are being left 'to work in the dark' by the Government as they try to prepare for the new carbon dioxide-based company car tax regime in 2002. Although the fleet industry has been told that a carbon dioxide-based tax will arrive, fleets and their service suppliers are still waiting to hear how it will work.

Traditional three-year replacement cycles mean that fleet cars provided for staff today will fall under the new tax regime and a bad choice could lead to massive tax bills for drivers. Contract hire companies, which need to provide advice for customers and also prepare their systems for the new tax, are warning the Government that it is risking chaos.

John Lyons, managing director of Godfrey Davis, which has a fleet of 16,000 managed and leased vehicles, warned the Government this week that it had to provide full details on the new tax regime soon or risk contract hire firms being left unprepared. He said: 'If the Government is really serious about environmental issues, it must accept that the fleet industry can play a major role in effecting green policies but we cannot do that if we are working in the dark.'