1

The Company Car’s time and place:

Establishing the spatio-temporal

patterns of a unique form of car

ownership

Scott Le Vine (slevine@imperial.ac.uk)

Peter Jones

John Polak

RGS-IBG Conference

August 2013

2

Relevance

• Car as compensation

taxed at a lower rate

than salary – accident

of history with

substantial inertia

• Transport policy

‘success story’

• Under-appreciated

contributor to broader

trends

3

Motivating questions

• Company car use is

reducing – is it shifting

to personal car use?

• Does another family

member having a

company car mean

you drive less?

• How, when and where

are company cars

used? -4,000

-3,500

-3,000

-2,500

-2,000

-1,500

-1,000

-500

0

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

3,000

3,500

-3,500 -3,000 -2,500 -2,000 -1,500 -1,000 -500 0 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 3,000 3,500

Ch

ange

in a

vera

ge a

nn

ual

co

mp

any

car

dri

vin

g m

ileag

e (

fro

m 1

99

5/7

)

Change in average annual personal car driving mileage (from 1995/7)

Men aged 30 to 59, in full-time employment

Average for all SEG classes

Employer/manager

Professional

Non-manual

Personal service

Manual

Self-employed non-professional

Other

2000/2

2005/7

2008/10

-

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

3,000

15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75

Ave

rage

an

nu

al c

om

pan

y ca

r d

rivi

ng

mile

age

Age (5-year-of-age moving average)

Men, 1995/7

Men, 2000/2

Men, 2005/7

Men, 2008/10

Women, 1995/7

Women, 2000/2

Women, 2005/7

Women, 2008/10

4

A middle-aged, male phenomenon

-

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

3,000

15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75

Ave

rage

an

nu

al c

om

pan

y ca

r d

rivi

ng

mile

age

Age (5-year-of-age moving average)

Men, 1995/7

Men, 2000/2

Men, 2005/7

Men, 2008/10

Women, 1995/7

Women, 2000/2

Women, 2005/7

Women, 2008/10

5

Limited evidence of substitution

-4,000

-3,500

-3,000

-2,500

-2,000

-1,500

-1,000

-500

0

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

3,000

3,500

-3,500 -3,000 -2,500 -2,000 -1,500 -1,000 -500 0 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 3,000 3,500

Ch

ange

in a

vera

ge a

nn

ual

co

mp

any

car

dri

vin

g m

ileag

e (

fro

m 1

99

5/7

)

Change in average annual personal car driving mileage (from 1995/7)

Men aged 30 to 59, in full-time employment

Average for all SEG classes

Employer/manager

Professional

Non-manual

Personal service

Manual

Self-employed non-professional

Other

2000/2

2005/7

2008/10

6

Further investigation of substitution

• Multivariate regression

(with controls for

confounding effects)

of driving mileage

by British adults (‘95-

’10)

• n=201K; r2 = 0.36

• Individual-year

dummy variables to

capture exogenous

shifts

-250

0

250

500

750

1,000

1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

Mile

s p

er y

ear

Year-specific error terms

-2,500

0

2,500

5,000

7,500

10,000

12,500

Keeps a company car Keeps a company car & receives free fuel

Does not keep a company car, but

another household member does

Does not keep a company car and

receive free fuel, but another household

member does

Mile

s p

er y

ear

Effects of interest

7

Further investigation of substitution (2)

-2,500

0

2,500

5,000

7,500

10,000

12,500

Keeps a company car Keeps a company car & receives free fuel

Does not keep a company car, but

another household member does

Does not keep a company car and

receive free fuel, but another household

member does

Mile

s p

er y

ear

Effects of interest

8

Changing profile of CC drivers

Average income of company car drivers

1995/7 £41.5K

2000/2 £42.7K

2005/7 £39.7K

2008/10 £37.5K

(2010 prices, RPI-adjusted)

9

When are company cars used?

Distribution of journeys by journey start time

10

How are company cars used? (1)

11

How are company cars used? (2)

Company car

Personal car

All other purposes

10 miles 7 miles

Business 35 miles 16 miles

Commuting 17 miles 9 miles

Average journey length

12

How are company cars used? (3)

13

Where are company cars?

• More prevalent in

Greater South East

than rest of GB in

1990s; less so

today

• We analysed

personal car and

company car

movements using 5

concentric

geographies

A: Central London

(within Inner Ring Road)

B: Rest of Inner London

C: Outer London

D: Greater South East

(SE and Eastern GORs)

E. Rest of GB

A B C D E

14

Where are company cars kept?

15

Where are company cars used?

• More likely than

personal cars to

travel radially

• Company cars are

9% of car-trips

in/out of Central

London;

8% of all radial trips;

4% of others

16

Where are company cars used? (2)

17

Where are company cars used? (3)

• Half (48%) of London

personal car trips are

O.L. to/from O.L.

• 35% of company car

trips are O.L.-O.L.

• But a greater

proportion of company

car travel is between

O.L. and Home

Counties

18

Summary

• Some evidence that company car mileage is

‘excess’ – i.e. not a perfect substitute for

personal car mileage

• No evidence of a company car driver’s presence

in HH suppressing other HH members’ driving

mileage

− But we looked at people, not vehicles

• Company car trips are disproportionately radial,

in peak periods, in peak direction