Councils introduce salary sacrifice car schemes

Sandwell Council, Calderdale Council and Oxford City Council have introduced salary sacrifice car schemes, covering nearly 10,000 employees. 

Sandwell Council launched its scheme to its 5,000 employees in June. 

Calderdale Council launched a low carbon scheme to more than 3,600 eligible staff.

Meanwhile, Oxford City Council, which has 1,200 eligible employees, launched a scheme last month. 

All three schems are provided by Tusker.

Jan Britton, chief executive of Sandwell Council, said that the scheme had been really well received by employees and that more than 40 new car orders have already been placed. 

“The salary sacrifice car scheme joins a number of benefits under our Sandwell Employee Benefits package, and after two months is already ahead of where we expected it to be.” 

The council communicated the scheme using dedicated intranet site, roadshows, flyers, posters, messages on employees’ payslips and Britton’s blog. 

She said: “Having achieved this high level of awareness, it’s our intention to keep the scheme’s profile high.” 

Calderdale Council is encouraging employees to order cars with a combined fuel consumption of over 50 miles per gallon (mpg) to help reduce its carbon footprint and improve mileage efficiency. 

Through the scheme, employees can choose from contracts of 24, 30 or 36 months, all of which include motor insurance, servicing and maintenance, roadside assistance and Road Fund Licence. 

Paul Topham, transport services manager at Calderdale Council, said: “We set a carbon cap of 130/km on the scheme, which we thought was appropriate for our needs because it made more family-type cars, such as MPVs and SUVs, available to our staff.”

Meanwhile, Oxford City Council set up its salary sacrifice car scheme with a carbon cap of 130g/km and a choice of up to 3,500 models. 

Paul Collins, payroll technician at Oxford City Council, said: “Our employees already have access to other salary sacrifice [arrangements] for childcare vouchers and bikes for work, and in a survey identified that a car scheme would be a welcome addition to those benefits.

“Feedback to date has been very positive and the web portal for employees to choose their new cars, and for us as an employer, to authorise orders, is very easy to use.”