COMPANY car drivers at office products supplier Guilbert have been given a solid financial incentive to choose alternative fuel.

Not only will they pay lower tax BIK tax bills for driving a liquefied petroleum gas-powered car compared to its petrol equivalent, but Guilbert will also share with them savings made from filling up with gas instead of petrol.

The onus will be on the drivers to make savings because Guilbert will calculate the annual savings made by each individual driver using LPG, and then award a percentage of the saving as a taxable bonus.

The company has a fleet of 700 cars and vans, with models from seven different manufacturers, but a new deal to run Bi-fuel Volvos is likely to prove particularly popular.

Fleet manager Freddie Watts said: 'The ability to run Volvo Bi-fuels on our fleet not only benefits us in terms of cost, it also ensures we can be as environmentally effective as possible - a very important consideration for us.

'I have wanted to add LPG vehicles to our fleet since 1998, particularly as 80 per cent of our company car drivers are high-mileage sales people, but they need convenient refuelling points, and until recently, refuelling was a problem.

'I have already ordered an S40 and two S60s, and further orders are being placed by drivers as their existing company cars come up for replacement.'

He said he was attracted to the Volvo Bi-fuel range because of the choice and the fact that they are converted to run on gas by the manufacturer.

Typically LPG costs half as much as petrol in filling stations, and offers similar performance to petrol with slightly higher fuel consumption. But the price differential between LPG and petrol means that despite higher fuel consumption, running costs are significantly lower.