A DIRECTIVE on motor insurance from Europe is helping to push up the sales of fleet software in the UK.

The Fourth EU Motor Insurance Directive aims to build a central database of all insured vehicles within the European Union from 2003.

It is designed to stop motorists from one EU country driving in another without insurance and IT company cfc solutions said the move would affect fleets in the UK, as they will now have to list separately the insurance details of each vehicle used on business.

'For UK fleets, it means that careful recording of insurance details for every vehicle that passes through the fleet must be undertaken – perhaps even including private cars used by employees on company business. All of this information must be passed to the fleet's insurer,' the company said.

Cfc managing director Jason Francis added: 'The new motor insurance directive is quite simple in concept but for fleets to fulfil it does mean that fleet managers need to ensure that all the required insurance details for every vehicle on their fleets are recorded in a form that can be easily accessed.

'Fleet software is an ideal way to do this, especially when it comes to fast-changing daily vehicle movements like short-term hire, courtesy and demonstrator vehicles.'