Complete guide to grey fleets for UK businesses

Many UK businesses rely on employees using their own cars for work. When that happens, those privately owned vehicles become part of what’s known as a grey fleet.

And while it might not feel like you’re running a fleet at all, it still comes with real legal, financial, and safety responsibilities – ones that are easy to miss if you’re not looking closely.

According to a survey by the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA) and Energy Saving Trust, grey fleets in the UK include around 14 million vehicles, compared to just 1.8 million company-owned fleet vehicles. In other words, grey fleet is the norm, not the exception.

So if your company has salespeople driving to customer meetings, consultants visiting client sites, or care and support workers travelling between appointments, chances are you’re already managing a grey fleet, whether you call it that or not.

That’s something we hear a lot when talking to customers:

“We didn’t think of it as a fleet at all — it was just people using their own cars. It was only when compliance came up that we realised how much responsibility sat with us.”

Before we can dive into managing a grey fleet properly, you need clarity. That means:

• Clear definitions 
• A shared understanding of how to stay safe, compliant, and in control
• Clarity on the division of responsibilities

That’s what this guide is here to help you with.

What is a grey fleet?

A grey fleet is any vehicle used for business travel that’s owned or leased by the employee, rather than the employer. This includes:

• Privately owned cars
• Cash allowance vehicles
• Personal leased vehicles (PCP, ECO)
• Employee-owned vans
• Motorcycles and scooters
• Bicycles used for business
• Electric & hybrid vehicles

Common grey fleet journeys include:

• Care workers making home visits
• Technicians or engineers carrying out field service or on-site servicing
• Salespeople travelling to customer meetings
• Consultants visiting client sites
• Construction workers travelling between sites or to temporary works locations
• Employees attending a conference

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Grey fleet driver 

And while we’re getting the foundations in order, let’s quickly touch upon who is a grey fleet driver?

A grey fleet driver is anyone who uses a privately owned vehicle (not owned, leased, or rented by the company) to make a work-related journey.

This includes:

• Employees taking a car allowance instead of a company car
• Staff using their cars for occasional work trips (meetings, training, errands)
• Contractors, freelancers, and gig workers driving for work
• Anyone driving a third-party vehicle (e.g. a client’s or friend’s car) for business

Grey fleet vs company cars vs commercial fleets explained

Company cars became popular in the UK after WWII, with their biggest boom in the late 1960s and 1970s. One of the UK’s favourite workplace perks, they even earned the nickname “repmobiles.”

Today, the picture is far more mixed. Most businesses now use a combination of company cars, grey fleet, commercial vehicles, and short-term leases to support their mobility strategy.

When employees use their own vehicles for work, it’s always worth pausing and making sure the foundations are in place.

Also read: In-depth company car vs personal car (grey fleet) comparison 

General employer fleet responsibilities 

Regardless of who owns the vehicle your employee is driving, some responsibilities always sit with you as the employer:

• A duty of care for employees when they are driving for work
• Ensuring vehicles used for business are insured, roadworthy, and legally compliant
• Clear visibility into how vehicles are used for work-related travel
• Responsibility for how journeys are planned, approved, and managed

When these basics are covered, work travel is easier to manage and far less likely to catch you by surprise later on. 

Grey fleet benefits 

The main forces driving grey fleets include: 

• Workplace flexibility: Employees prefer using their own vehicles, especially with hybrid or remote work models.
• Cost control: Employers avoid investing in fleet assets.
• Tax and BiK considerations: Rising Benefit-in-Kind rates have made company cars less attractive for employees.
• Reduced driving needs: Post-pandemic trends indicate fewer business trips, making full-company fleets less viable.

Workplace flexibility has changed how employees travel. Fewer daily commutes, fewer long trips, and more hybrid roles mean many employees prefer using their own vehicle rather than being tied to a company car. 

For employers, that flexibility removes the burden of managing a large vehicle fleet and being left with unused cars when roles or headcount change.

Cost control plays a big role, too. By relying on employees’ own vehicles, businesses can free up capital and reduce spending on servicing, maintenance, insurance, and fleet administration. Employees can still be reimbursed for business travel using HMRC-approved mileage rates or employer-set custom rates. 

Driving patterns have also shifted. Since the pandemic, many businesses travel fewer miles overall, with more meetings held online and fewer long, multi-day trips. This makes business driving now more occasional and spread out.

In those cases, a full company fleet can be hard to justify, which could explain why grey fleets have become the default for many organisations.

We see a similar pattern in Driversnote mileage tracking data. Based on millions of trips logged each month, employees are driving on more days per year (more active days), but in general, journeys are shorter, more fragmented, and less predictable, reflecting the realities of hybrid work.

Grey fleet management

Grey fleet management is how you, as an employer, stay in control over work-related driving your employees do in their own cars.

It’s the policies, checks, processes, and software you put in place to:

• Meet your duty of care
• Make sure vehicles used for work are safe, insured, and legally compliant
• Track business mileage and costs accurately
• Understand when, why, and how your people drive for work

A clear legal baseline

​​​​​As a UK employer, you have a duty of care to protect your employees while they’re working, including when they’re driving for work. This applies regardless of who owns the car.

In practice, that means taking reasonable steps to ensure vehicles used for work are:

• Roadworthy and properly maintained
• Insured for business use
• MOT-tested where required

The same principles apply to journey planning, fatigue management, and basic risk assessment.

Cash allowance vehicles are subject to the same rules. Even if an employee buys or leases a car themselves using an allowance, it’s still classed as grey fleet, and the employer’s responsibility remains unchanged.

Who actually manages a grey fleet?

Because grey fleet vehicles aren’t usually part of a “traditional” fleet, ownership inside the organisation can be unclear. 

It’s not always the fleet manager, because, technically, there is no fleet. As a result, many businesses haven’t invested in systems or processes to manage it.

And grey fleet management doesn’t require a new department or a heavy admin burden. 

What it does require is clear ownership. Someone in the organisation needs responsibility for: 

• Setting policy or simply giving directions to employees in terms of mileage tracking, insurance, and similar
• Ensuring compliance
• Overseeing mileage and safety checks 

… whether that sits with fleet, finance, HR, operations, or health & safety, clear processes and the right tools are key. 

How confident are you in your grey fleet setup?

If you’re still unsure about your setup, answering these basic questions can bring clarity and help you figure out your next steps:

• Do employees use their own vehicles for work?
• Are those vehicles insured for business use?
• Is business mileage tracked accurately?
• Do you have a clear grey fleet policy in place?

 Assess your setup with our grey fleet risk assessment checklist

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