WHAT IS OPTIMIZER?Optimizer is the ultimate salary sacrifice car scheme that delivers low-cost, hassle-free motoring to your employees. Designed to increase the value of benefits and rewards in your workplace, Optimizer offers a fantastic range of brand-new, fully maintained, fuel-efficient cars at zero cost to the business.

As an aid to staff recruitment and retention Optimizer enables any employee or their partner to benefit from the personal use of a new and efficient car, at a cost that is simply not available to them anywhere else.

In a climate where pay rises and bonuses may be hard to deliver, Optimizer is a great way to retain talent and enhance the package you offer to employees without increasing your costs of employment.

By providing a car through salary sacrifice, you can separate yourself from your competitors and deliver one of the most valuable benefits available. Optimizer is the ideal way to spread the feel-good factor right across your business – nothing beats the feeling of getting the keys to a new car.

Best of all, Optimizer helps find the optimum balance between what you need as a business and what your people want as drivers.

FEATURES AND BENEFITS• Employer saves NIC on salary reduction

• Employee saves NIC on salary reduction

• Employee saves Income Tax on salary reduction

• Encourages lower P11D and CO2 on cars

• Helps employees reduce their environmental footprint

• Enhances duty of care profile of the business

• Supports Government policy on low emission transport

• Fully maintained cars and fully managed service

• Fleet discounts are passed on to employees

• No requirement for finance agreements or deposits from the employee

• Wide choice of vehicles

• Free delivery anywhere on the UK mainland

Where Optimizer cars are used for business journeys

• The environmental footprint of the business can be improved

• Duty of Care risk can be reduced

• Fuel costs can be reduced

WHAT’S INCLUDED?• The hire of a car for 2 or 3 years

• All manufacturer’s servicing

• Mechanical repairs

• Tyres and exhausts

• UK emergency roadside recovery

• Accident management

• European emergency recovery and UK repatriation

• Replacement vehicle during extended mechanical repairs

• Annual vehicle tax

• Annual driver’s licence check

• Motor insurance

• Free UK delivery and collection

• Full implementation service

• Total vehicle administration service

BECOME SAFER AND GREENERMany businesses top up their vehicle fleet by allowing staff to use their own cars for business purposes and then claim back expenses. This ‘pay on use’ approach is often more cost effective than public transport, daily rental or pool cars.

The problem is that under health and safety laws, the business is just as responsible for the condition and use of the vehicles as it is for the company car fleet. As a result, the so-called ‘grey fleet’ represents serious risk.

Optimizer is the perfect solution to this problem, as it allows you to mitigate your risk while continuing with an expense based system. There is no longer any need to worry about the condition of staff cars because you know they will be expertly managed and include road tax, servicing, tyres and mechanical repairs.

What’s more, every year we even check the drivers’ licences for Optimizer drivers – a considerable saving year on year.

Your environmental footprint will also become a little lighter because salary sacrifice works best for low emission cars. Optimizer encourages staff to choose cars that are more efficient and less harmful to the environment.

By taking advantage of new engine technologies every couple of years, Optimizer helps accelerate improvements in both the driver’s personal carbon footprint and that of the business.

And on top of the incredible savings Optimizer delivers to drivers and the business, there will be benefit from superior fuel efficiency – so driving really doesn’t have to cost the earth!

HELP YOU CAN TRUSTIt can take a little time to set up a new Optimizer scheme as there are some key policy decisions that will need to be made by the business.

Prior to launching Optimizer, Activa will meet with you to fully identify all risks involved with implementing the scheme within your business and ways to limit these. As a company, you can restrict the scheme as much as you see appropriate.

• You can restrict vehicle choices dependent on your company’s aims, objectives,and values.

• You can restrict employee eligibility to the scheme based on perceived risk to the company i.e. minimum years of employment term, years licence held for, contracted hours of employment.

Our advice throughout this process will be tailored to your corporate culture and individual circumstance, and will result in a bespoke scheme policy document being produced. This policy will be distributed to all employees and be hosted on your online Optimizer portal.

Activa’s Opticare employer insurance package is also available if you wish to protect yourself further from any associated risks.

Activa will also assist you in ensuring that the scheme meets the approval of your tax advisors and HMRC, and see that any necessary amendments to your payroll systems and contracts of employment are made.

Most importantly, we will work with you to promote Optimizer to your staff. We will arrange production of bespoke marketing material for use by the company and run workshops at your premises to raise awareness of the scheme.

HOW DOES OPTIMIZER WORK?The principle of salary sacrifice is well-established among good employers with a strong track record in recruiting, retaining, and rewarding their people.

In essence, your employees who opt into the scheme will give up part of their salary each month in exchange for the hire of an Optimizer car. This will require a change to the employee’s terms and conditions of employment.

Optimizer’s online ordering system makes it easy for everyone to take advantage of the scheme.

1. We will issue your company with a unique access key for the Optimizer portal, which can be used by all employees.

2. The first time an employee accesses the portal, they will be asked to register using their company email and a password of their choice. They will then need to confirm their personal details, including the percentage of tax paid.

3. Once an employee has registered, they can then start searching and comparing cars using manufacturer, model and affordability filters.

4. Quotations for cars can be generated over 24- or 36-month terms, or against any special terms agreed by you at any time. Expected mileage and any manufacturer extras are also taken into consideration at the quoting stage.

5. Once an employee has found the car they want, they can order this online. Acknowledgment of this order is then sent to you by email for authorisation. Activa will not proceed with any order until employer approval has been received and a full driving licence check has been carried out on the intended employee.

6. Activa will keep the employee updated on the status of their order until the new car is ready, when we will then arrange delivery.

7. We will manage all administration of the employee’s car during the agreement.

8. Activa will contact both you and the employee in good time approaching contract termination to arrange collection of the car.

GET MORE INFORMATION ON OPTIMIZERFor further information on the Optimizer salary sacrifice car scheme, and how your company can benefit from it, please contact one of our experts.

Activa Contracts Winchester Circle, Kingston Milton Keynes MK10 0BA

Tel 01908 288400Email info@activacontracts.co.ukActivaContracts.co.uk

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