Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Timid and Stupid

You ought to see the furore when you ask if it's ok to use a motorcycle..!!

Peter you said recently you had decided to stay on a few years rather than retire at the companies request.

Why not just retire and be done with it?

The Private Cars < 180 miles is a cost thing. At HMRC rates of 45p per mile, a hire car can be cheaper than paying a mileage rate.

I agree that it is a petty and time consuming policy. Having said that, when I last had a Corporate job (as opposed to my own business) in 2006, most of us had opted out of the company car scheme. They were (compared to Peter's policy) relatively free on what you could drive, but your choice of car did have to be approved - everyone drove a 4 door car as we were expected to carry passengers regularly.

I recognise almost every one of those restrictions from my own big company days. Mostly down to economy and the private mileage allowance but 5 is an H&s thingy. My one and only my fault accident was driving my own car back home after a 22 hour flight from s. america.

Your journey from home to your place of work should be at your expense according to HMRC .

This is just making me think of the time my dad had to (unexpectedly) give a lift to the old boss of IBM, Sir Edwin Nixon in his IBM company car, a Granada estate.

He had used it on the preceding weekend to shift some bags of manure, and it still smelled a bit fruity.....

Peter,
Oh how the memories come flooding back. I thank goodness every day that I took early retirement and do what ever I like. Do re consider a make the most of life if you can afford it.

+1. Absolutely agree!

I caught a bit of a cold the other way around once. I bought a second hand CL600 which had lost money like a rocket assisted stone for it's first owner and I used it for company travel. It was stunning. The interior was beautiful - Full alcantara and nappa leather interior. The turbo V12 was musical.

I collected our CEO at Heathrow. We went in the CL to a few customer meetings. As we drove off from LHR Bob (CEO) looked at the car and asked how I ran this using the company car policy. I could see the cogs whirring. Long explanations around it costing less than a well spec'd 520i

We then went on the underground to a customer in Canary Wharf where the annual car show was in place. We came out of the underground and there was a building we walked through that had a "UK Sports Car" group. Lotus, Noble and Morgan all had stands. As I walked past with Bob the sales person called out my name causing Bob to turn. We had a few minutes so I went over. At this point Bob asked how I knew them and I mentioned we owned "one a bit like that" and pointed at the Supersport as we had the S2 at the time.

He walks over and does what most people do when seeing one of those for the first time - gawp. Then he sees the display showing the price (we paid £40k for the S2 and it showed £140k for the S/Sport) and I remember to this day as he mouthed the words W.T.F. at me. He never swears. I excused myself from the Morgan peeps and aimed to deflect the brain fart that was about to occur. No. Too late.

So that was it, for the next six years the butt of every HR joke about company cars was the UK and me. Everytime I tried to get something decent through it was judged against the profligate levels and so we went in circles.

Yet everytime one of them came to the UK the first thing that happened was they asked me to collect them and they packed a small soft back instead of the usual massive carry-on.

The laugh is that the combined cost of both our cars was only slightly more than the Tesla he drives now. He is a good guy though. Just not a petrol head !

You have to laugh.

Don't miss all that corporate bullshit - even with the pending NIC increases My company car policy is to use the Plus 4 and 911 as much as possible where, appropriate- and i'll decide that, not some daft twat trying to justify his or her salary from personal or wherever

I'm going at the end of the year...my notice goes in on 31 December.
I have to give 3 months notice, but I will not be doing much in that period.

So, my last day will be 31 March 2018.
Unless they make me an offer to go sooner.
Which would be wonderful.

I will not be travelling much over the next 12 months. I've already agreed with them that after getting really rather ill in India I will not be flying long haul to second world destinations, and possibly anywhere, again.

Over the next 12 months my job is to mentor my replacement. Which, given she is a PhD Chemical Engineer with a rat trap brain, in her early 30s, is French, blond and delightful is a privilege.

Oh, last point, the Company will not pay for Avis to collect and deliver....