Council travel ‘perk’ could be axed by end of year (From York Press)
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Council travel ‘perk’ could be axed by end of year
9:12am Friday 31st August 2012 in News
By Mark Stead, Political Reporter
A PERK which allows hundreds of council staff in York to use their work vehicles for commuting while taxpayers cover their fuel bills could be axed by the end of the year.
City of York Council officers were told to look at a system which allows up to 200 of the authority’s employees to take vehicles home without paying for petrol or diesel themselves.
The review was ordered after the Labour group took control last year by council leader James Alexander when he learned about the long-standing perk.
Since then talks have been held with trade unions about a change in the rules.
New guidelines are now set to be brought in within months, meaning staff will have to foot their own fuel costs when they use council vehicles to commute.
The total cost of the current home-to-work transport scheme is believed to be about £150,000 a year.
Coun Alexander said that while some staff needed to take vehicles home because they were on call, others lived some distance from York and the policy needed to be reviewed.
“I instructed officers to address this issue on learning of this practice which had gone on for many years,” he said.
“As with all important issues involving staff, it has required discussions with trade unions. Long-standing practice is an implied contractual term, with legal standing, so discussions progressed and officers have had to give this proper consideration.
“A policy for charging staff for home-to-work transport should be implemented in the coming months, and I expect this to be by the end of 2012 following further discussions with staff representatives.”
Coun Alexander said the new rules would be in line with the withdrawal of Park&Ride passes for council staff, which has already been introduced, and would ensure “all staff are treated equally” over personal travel matters.
“This sum of money would be better spent keeping staff in work and delivering services for York residents,” he said.
When the review was launched, Coun Alexander said it was accepted that some staff made a contribution towards the use of pool cars and were sometimes asked to take them home to avoid problems with storage on council premises.
The perk is believed to have been introduced in the early 1980s as part of the terms and conditions of staff transferring to York from Ryedale and Selby under local government reorganisation.
The UNISON union, which represents many council staff in York, has said allowing staff to take vehicles home often meant they were in the best position to drive to a location the following day and helped productivity and efficiency, while tracking devices had been fitted to the council’s fleet to prevent the system being abused.
Comments(17)
meme
says...
9:49am Fri 31 Aug 12
Pete the Brickie
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10:27am Fri 31 Aug 12
If the company vehicle is a van the driver is allowed by inland revenue rules to use the vehicle for commuting without paying tax. This rule was brought in when Gordan Brown raised the taxable value of having such vehicles for personal use from £700 per year to £3,500 but allowed drivers to state they only used it for work and driving to and from work and not pay any tax at all. The result was I'm pretty sure I'm right in saying a nett loss of tax revenue as most people chose that option and ended up paying no tax on £3,500 instead of 22% of £700.
The commuting loophole was left to prevent millions of van drivers finishing work early to return their vehicles to work premises each night, costing billions in lost production. James may well find he will make no savings what so ever in fuel as the depot will be as close to the workplace as home for most and the council will loose a lot of working hours as workers return the vehicles to their depot each night in the council's time and make their own way home.
If the vehicle is a car the employee will of course be paying tax on personal use and fuel if they take it home, that is mandatory.
who are ya
says...
1:17pm Fri 31 Aug 12
Pete the Brickie
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1:40pm Fri 31 Aug 12
who are ya wrote:I'd disagree, not many companies ask their employees to bring fleets of vans back to one location each evening, private or public. If just half the drivers of the 200 vans decided to finish half an earlier to return their van to James street each day and meet up at the depot each morning to pick it up instead of going straight to work from home you are looking at 70-100 hours of lost production per day, I have a small fleet of vehicles and I know this is right, believe me when I say £150k per year fuel/running costs is nothing compared to what it will cost in wasted manpower, to say nothing of the traffic/storage/secu
I would have though t that a half dozen vans for out of hours maintance would be about fair enough but, upto 200? thats a **** take.Company vehicles should be left at work premises and all milage and fuel has to be accounted for, well most companies do this except it seems City of York Council. For once I agree with James Alexander but wonder if he makes himself and collegues abide by these rules too.
rity/insurance problems when they all return bang on ten minutes before home time to store upwards of 100 mobile catalyst convertors next to a place full of people who like aquiring scrap metal for free.
Guy Fawkes
says...
3:38pm Fri 31 Aug 12
Coun Alexander said that while some staff needed to take vehicles home because they were on call, others lived some distance from York and the policy needed to be reviewed.
So he's saying that at present, some CoYC staff are allowed to use council vehicles to commute to and from a fixed workplace simply because they live a significant distance from it? Sorry, but that's absolutely not on. If you choose to live a long commute away from your workplace, that's your choice and you have to eat the cost of that.
only human
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4:19pm Fri 31 Aug 12
whilst their contracts states that part of their job means accessing people from across york to udertake pre planned and task timed care etc,they cannot do this effectively and efficently without access to a vehicle.
This means that they have to use their own vehicles to do the job and also to ferry around the workers who refuse to use their own cars or just choose not to own a car.
For this they are required to list details of every mile undertaken and every call detail and the reason for the journey,then at the end of each month they have to submit these forms and cyc pay per mile.
they are told that they would still be able to do their list of house calls on foot,bike or bus in the same amount of time but this would be impossible due to the distance involved between addresses.
the socalle dmileae allowance has been cut recentl and with the massive hikes in fuel costs it is now not financially viable to use your own vehicle.
i would like to know how the other half of cyc workers milk the system....the whole thing is a shambles and needs an urgent review.
boroboy111
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6:25pm Fri 31 Aug 12
magic cat
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7:06pm Fri 31 Aug 12
greenmonkey
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8:18pm Fri 31 Aug 12
On the question of councillors, they have recently been told they can only claim travel allowance for attending official council meetings which they are a member of (although they still get free parking permits for council car parks).
thelostshoe1977
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8:26pm Fri 31 Aug 12
Silver
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8:27pm Fri 31 Aug 12
normansmith
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8:43pm Fri 31 Aug 12
thelostshoe1977
says...
9:02pm Fri 31 Aug 12
normansmith wrote:have you tried parking in residential areas around the city, it is impossible since the council started charging people for parking outside there own homes.
Councillors are obsessed by employee 'perks'. Park & Ride provided a sustainable approach for reducing congestion, however staff now drive into the city and park in residential areas. In regards to fuel allowances, I'm sure that there are very good reasons for staff using vehicles in the way that they do. If councillors really want to look at saving money, they need to look at reducing burearcracy rather than scoring cheap political points to please discruntled council tax paying residents. What next, a campaign to classify toilet paper as a staff perk!
sometimes i tell the truth
says...
11:30am Sun 2 Sep 12
...and before anyone mentions using public car parks, do you really think it'd be a good idea to have a couple of dozen marked vans parked up in the same place in Marygate car park every night? Far better to have them spread around the suburbs.
conkee
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11:09pm Mon 3 Sep 12
AliyaaF
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3:44pm Tue 4 Sep 12
colette says...
9:38am Fri 31 Aug 12