THE death knell has sounded for cash-for-car schemes as a poll of UK fleets found an increasing number now favour the traditional company car.

A study of more than 830 UK fleets found that the company car is continuing to make a comeback both for essential and perk drivers. Rich Green, managing director of GE Commercial Finance, Fleet Services, which carried out the study, said its findings show cash-for-car offerings could become ‘very rare’.

The number of companies offering essential users a cash option has dropped from 52% a year ago to 38% in the latest poll, covering the last quarter of 2006.

For non-essential users, 33% now offer a cash option, compared with 40% in last quarter of 2005.

The findings are produced as part of Company Car Trends, a series of quarterly online studies.

It also found that 88% of respondents predicted they would increase their company car provision to essential users throughout 2007. For non-essential drivers, the figure is 62%. Cash-for-car is expected to fall further still. Mr Green said health and safety concerns were behind the growing popularity of the company car.

He added: ‘The emphatic nature of the shift back towards company cars is evident from this research. Organisations that provide cars for their drivers appear to have concluded that the best way to meet their health and safety obligations is through traditional company car provision.

‘Cash-for-car offerings could become very rare indeed within the next few years and structured company car schemes restricted to specialist applications where their advantages are most apparent.’