Company Car Drivers are they actually Saving Fuel? Or is it Pedal to the Metal?
At the same time as a report from a major leasing company suggests that company car drivers have changed their attitudes towards use of fuel and are trying where possible to save fuel, another piece of research is claiming that company car drivers are more likely to have received speeding fines than other road users.
Apparently, one in six company car drivers have been caught speeding, compared to one in ten for the rest of the UK’s motorists. The survey results also claim that the number of speeding tickets issued is different at different times of the year and that December and January showed the lowest number of offences and that’s probably not surprising as most company car drivers take a long break over Christmas and the New Year, so aren’t in their cars and for those who are driving, the road and weather conditions are probably awful, which slows everyone down. Over holiday periods, the police of course are having their drink drive campaigns and perhaps they are doing that, rather than sitting on a motorway bridge, pointing a speed camera down the carriageway?
Maybe however it’s all much simpler than that and it’s just a case that company car drivers do more miles than normal motorists? My wife for example does around 3,000 miles each year and I do around 30,000 miles each year and just suppose, for one minute that a lapse of concentration means you go through a speed camera in a 30mph zone at 34mph, well that’s you bang to rights. Now logic would accept that this kind of thing does happen, so surely, if you are doing 10 times the annual mileage, there is 10 times the opportunity for that “lapse in concentration” to take place.
Quite clearly, these two pieces of research fly in the face of one another, because one says “we are in fuel save mode” whilst the other says “pedal to the metal and to hell with the fuel consumption”. So what’s right, because it can’t be both, so in ‘Harry Hill’ style we should ask which one is best and call for a fight to decide, but that’s pointless as it seems that it all depends on just who you are and how honest they are being?
We looked at the item which researched the move towards fuel saving by company car drivers elsewhere on these pages, so it’s only right we reported on this research as well, but clearly, as driving faster uses more fuel, this would indicate that fuel economy just isn’t a top priority for many company car drivers.
