FAQs for Fleet

A: When driving on ice or snow, remember this:

• Stay updated on the ambient temperature to be prepared for such icy conditions.
• Keep a keen eye on the nearest passing vehicles to see if they are sliding or skidding off the road.
• Listen to the weather forecasts and try your best to avoid the potential areas.
• Drive slowly and calmly.
• Maximise the distance between you and the vehicles / HGVs in front of you.
• If your vehicle starts skidding, steer towards the road direction while pressing gently on the brakes.

We suggest you consider hitting the road unless and until it’s crucially important. Else, we advise you to stay updated on the weather forecast about the potential danger zones and think about whether the journey is worth the health and wealth cost of an unfortunate accident. Consult further information on FleetSpeak for how to drive on ice.

A: Below are some tips to consider for fleet drivers.

• Avoid uphill speeding
• Filling up in mild weather
• Parking in a shade
• Driving at a moderate speed

Below are some tips to consider for fleet managers.

• Acquiring a fleet fuel card
• Maintaining your tyre pressure
• Monitoring fuel maintenance time
• Opting for fuel-efficient vehicles
• Minding the idling business

It’s highly recommended to use a fuel calculator to occasionally check your vehicle’s fuel economy. For further information, please visit the full article.

A: To get a valid license for your vehicle, you need to take a Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency (DVLA) driving theory test practice. Before consulting a theory test, make sure you have the following:

• Make sure to understand the costs per category.
• If you aren't available in person while booking, you can book the test online.
• Make sure to take all your documents needed before the test.

Following are the guidelines to follow before applying for your driving licence photo card.

• Find out if you need a digital photograph depending on your licence type.
• You comply with the driving licence photo card guidelines.
• You understand the rules for the printed driving licence photo.
• Documents needed to certify your driving licence photo.

To reduce the risk of fleets sliding off the road through collisions in winter, they often use dedicated winter tyres or whole new all-season tyres.

These tyres provide a significant amount of traction on slippery roads, especially on black ice to reduce the risk of any unfortunate collisions.

The effectiveness of these tyres has been tested by Tyresafe, an independent road safety charity and discovered that:

A: Here’s how to check your own driving licence

You have to use a free online tool to enquire about your vehicle’s licence against the Driver and Vehicle Association Agency (DVLA) database.

You can also choose an option to get a one-time code to grant access to an employer or any other parties in a case.

Click View my licence to open the official DVLA website & view your licence.

B: Here’s how you can check someone else’s driving licence

Clicking the link below lets you generate a one-time code for your employees to check and confirm your licence validity & endorsements or qualifications.

Click here to redirect to the official DVLA services & verify your client’s licence.

Cars that emit 76g/km of CO2 or more have to pay the TfL congestion charge if they enter the designated zone between 7 am and 10 pm, seven days a week. This includes the vast majority of vehicles on our roads, including most cars, vans, and HGVs. Anyone driving a vehicle not registered in the UK must also pay the charge.

To find out if you need to pay the congestion charge when driving in central London, use TfL’s congestion charge checker.

The London Congestion Charge is a £15 daily deductible if you are driving within the Congestion Charge zone, timing around: 07:00-22:00, every day, except for Christmas Day, i.e., 25 December.

Full Story: Transport for London unveil Congestion Charge changes.

As mentioned above, every car has to have a Benefit-in-Kind tax percentage band based on the vehicle’s CO2 emissions & P11D numbers, which is nothing but the list price with extras & VAT just without the first-year registration fees.

BIK tax or company car tax can be calculated by multiplying the P11D value by the percentage band of BIK. After that, you can multiply the acquired figure by your tax bands, like 20% or 30% in value. You can also visit UK’s official page for tax on company benefits to get more information.

In terms of car leasing, a residual value is determined to express the resale value of your vehicle. After evaluating the cost of your monthly payments, the estimated residual amount is calculated by your leasing company before completing the agreement procedures.

To calculate the residual amount of your vehicle, the leasing company will use your vehicle’s annual mileage limit & the Length of the vehicle’s term papers to evaluate the deflated value upon your contract length. You can also use the residual amount calculator to check your predictions.

Crucial factors of the residual value of your vehicle to remember:

• The residual value will considerably affect your monthly income. (the higher the residual value, the higher the payments per month)
• The residual value is not a constant measure. (Every month and year, the residual value changes)
• All the lease vehicles lose their value over time.
• The residual amounts are also evaluated by lending institutions that offer and issue all lease contracts.
• Consumer trends & vehicle’s model history affect the overall residual value of your vehicle.

To record and store a spectrum of information about the driver and the vehicle, such as the distance travelled, speed stricks in different terrains, time covered, and driver’s activities while driving, a digital tachograph card is a compact-sized tool prepped inside the goods and passenger vehicles.

Earlier this year, the EU announced plans to introduce a new generation of smart tachographs for trucks.

June 2019 will see the first vehicles being fitted with smart tachographs. These new smart tachographs are essentially pan-European systems to record the driving, working and rest times in commercial vehicles.

The rules that allow you to tow different trailers depend on which licence category you earned while passing your driving theory test.

Heavy towing combinations

The following steps can be consulted to tow heavier combinations.

• For category C1+E i.e., medium-sized trailers and lorries, apply for the provisional licence.
• Pass the lorry driving theory test.
• Pass the C1+E licence driving test.

If you are operating vehicles above 3.5 tonnes of gross vehicle weight (GVW), an operator’s licence is essential to carry goods for carrying loads for trade or businesses. Including short term vehicle hire for even a single day.

The operator’s licence should be dealt with a person belonging to the company or, rest alone, an individual who is ‘using’ the vehicle who may or may not be an owner of the vehicle. The vehicle user would be:

• The driver (may or may not be an owner of the vehicle) is buying on hire purchase term, leasing or borrowing it.
• The person is a driver or an agent, whoever is employing the driver.

Visit: How you can get your operator’s licence for more information.