TRANSFERRING the labour-intensive task of new vehicle quotations from fleet managers to the driver could save some companies almost £170,000, or the equivalent of 10 company cars on a 1,000-vehicle fleet.

HSBC Vehicle Finance says that traditionally, the fleet manager spends considerable time sourcing and fine-tuning contract hire quotations but using online services would eliminate this process.

It has launched a new system called DriverQuote which aims to help by providing drivers with details of the cars they qualify for and also informs them of personal cost implications, including monthly benefit-in-kind tax liability and personal fuel costs, as well as the wholelife cost to the company.

Once a company has signed up to DriverQuote, its fleet policy is installed within HSBC's secure online system. The fleet manager then allocates each driver a user ID and password.

Once the driver has made a final decision they submit an order for authorisation to the fleet manager.

Tim Holmes, head of HSBC Vehicle Finance, said: 'The average ordering process takes eight weeks, during which time it takes an employee over eight hours to order a new company car – quite apart from the fleet department's efforts in researching the various quotations.'