A new salary sacrifice scheme has been launched, known as Colleague Cars, by Intelligent Fleet.

The package includes a car as well as road tax, maintenance, insurance and provision for early termination.

Employees obtain quotes for a car and insurance through an online system and then agree to give up part of their salary in return for the car.

Once a contract has been agreed, the package operates as if the employee has entered into a personal agreement for the car.

Gerard Gornall, managing director of Intelligent Fleet said: “For low CO2 emission vehicles, the company car tax is substantially lower than the tax paid on the salary given up, so employees can save up to 35% on the cost of a new car.”

Commenting Gary Hull, director of HRS employment solutions at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said that while the product presents nothing new it does offer another ‘green’ avenue for employers to explore.

“The over-riding concept is sound…Whilst the use of salary sacrifice in this manner does promote useage of lower CO2 emission vehicles, there is also the argument that it also puts more cars on the road.

"Accordingly employers should ideally consider this as part of a green travel plan.”