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Think it would be out of place to ask for company car?....

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Elite Member
Super Moderator
In an effort to reduce vehicle payment, I have thought of a possible solution that could be beneficial to both myself, and my employer.

Here's the situation - I work for a company that owns the franchise rights to Arby's fast food, and Krispy Kreme Donuts in the Iowa, Nebraska, and Southern Wisconsin areas. We have stores ranging from Omaha Nebraska in our western region, to stores in the Quad Cities in Illinois/Iowa, as well as a couple stores in Madison Wisconsin, and several more throughout Iowa. I'm responsible for the computer equipment in all of these stores and travel fairly frequently to keep everything up to par.

As it stands right now, I finance my own vehicles, pay for my own gas, and take care of all of my own maintanance. If I have to travel, I get paid $.325 a mile, or, about $33 per hundred miles. I have to pay for my own gas, travel expenses (minus motel), and wear and tear of my vehicles out of that compensation. On a given month, I do about 500 miles, or $160 worth of traveling. Last year I put on about 5,000 miles worth of work miles on my personal vehicle.

Here's what I was thinking - have my company lease a vehicle for me and make the monthly payments. In turn, I would offer for them to reduce my monthly salary by $150, and wouldn't claim any expenses when I do travel. Assuming that I maintain that 500 mile average of miles a month, it's a win-win situation for both of us right?

BTW - out of 15 employees in our office, 6 of them have company leased vehicles so the concept of leasing isn't a new one to the company. Two of the people that have company cars simply use them to get back and forth to work. Their jobs are not traveling jobs by nature, so the concept of leasing isn't a new one to the company.

One question for those that do have company cars - do you pay for your own insurance coverage, or does your company?
 
Some of our employees have company cars. It is kind of a 'perk' for employee and has benefits for company also- in sense that they have reliable transportation and they travel at a moments notice for us.

We pay all expenses related to car, except they are taxed an amount for personal use (like driving to and from work, and using the car for other personal things). this keeps irs off your back.

It can be a good thing for company and employee--but we have quite a bit of abuse. It certainly isn't wrong to ask though, but I wouldn't volunteer a reduction in salary.

Mark
 


<< It certainly isn't wrong to ask though, but I wouldn't volunteer a reduction in salary. >>


I agree with that.

EDIT: If you feel that they are going to say no, or the want to talk to you about bargaining, then I might mention it. But, don't volunteer it first. 🙂 Good luck!
 


<< Think it would be out of place to ask for company car? >>

No. Why don't you get me one while you're at it.
 
The reason that I offer the reduction in pay is because they gave me a VERY large raise about 3 months ago. I don't want to overstep my boundaries and sound like a greed little bastard 🙂

The raise was in the vacinity of 12%. It came at around my 6 month review. I'm rapidly approaching my year anniversary with the company. Maybe I can try and leverage the lease instead of the 2%-3% standard of living increase.
 
What's the company culture like?

you mentioned that a few have cars that only drive to and from work, are they family members? seems odd. or does company view car as a perk for job well done?

Mark
 
There's basically two parts of the company - the office, and the stores. We have about 15 employees in the office, and about 500 employees spread across around 25 stores.

The president of the company, and the second in command, are brothers, they take care of business stuff. The third owner who takes care of all contstruction overhead and supervises maintanance is a brother in law of the president. They have company cars.

We then have 3 district manangers that have company cars that they use to drive from store to store within their regions.

The two people in the office that don't use their cars directly for work are two employees that have been here the longest. One is the &quot;controller&quot;, and the other is an accountant that has been here several years. They just use their cars to get them to work and back every day.

My situation is different because I don't use my car everyday to travel for work, but when I do, my trips are usually pretty far away. A trip from the home office in Cedar Rapids, IA to Madison or Omaha is a 4 hour one way trip that runs about 500 miles easily. I make those runs almost monthly.

It's for the reason that I don't use the car everyday to get me around that I offered to take a cut in pay. Over half of the miles I put on the car in the month would simply to get me to work and back, the other half would come from my traveling.
 
Every place is different,

ours is a family owned business and the company car thing rarely works out as a financial good thing for the company. But that just may be because of the way we do it. We let people get away with just about anything. It's all about an employee's total compensation package.

For us a cars expenses,(fuel, insurance, taxes, repairs, ,etc) usually runs just a little less than the payment each month. Keep that in mind if they do go for the car, and keep in mind your total compensation.

It is in their interest for you to feel good about what they pay you, and yours to feel good about your level of pay.

Mark
 
Thanks for the info meister. I bought a SUV last fall to help me out with my job. I used to have a small 4 door sedan that I bought before I accepted my current job.

I had to get the SUV because the small sedan that I had wouldn't allow me to haul the computer equipment that I needed to move (monitors, printers, ect).

My girlfriend and I are currently looking at purchasing a house and want to reduce our monthly debt as much as possible. If we could get rid of that SUV payment, or at least greatly reduce it, we'd be a lot happier.

The cars that I was looking at would be fairly reasonable. I was looking at a volkswagen golf 4 door hatchback, or a VW Passat Wagon. I could get a lease for those for around 250-350 a month. If I offer to reduce my monthly income a little, and don't claim travel expenses, then they more or less have the car paid for which is nice for them. Me on the other hand, I'm one loan less, don't have to worry about maintanance, and I'm $600 a year cheaper in car insurance.

I'm not familiar with all of the paper work that it adds for them, nor am knowledgeable on what all it actually costs them, but I think my offer seems fairly reasonable.
 
Probably so if the type of car is important (hauling equipment and such) It's a pain in the xxx hauling monitors especially in back seats etc.

Mark
 
Sluggo, can you expand upon that? How exactly do you report that, and how do you figure what you owe?
 
I'm not real clear on it, I do know that you can get raked over the coals on a company car deal. I would talk to my accountant before solidifying any type of deal. I think it all depends on how your company reports the car, but they do have to report something on it.

Basically your company has to figure the costs of it in their accounting dept. How this is accounted for is dependent on the company. Most times whatever their cost is on it, just shows up on your W2. Pretty screwy deal, and there is every possibility that I am way off base on it, just check before you sign up. 🙂
 


<< My girlfriend and I are currently looking at purchasing a house .... >>



You need to worry about that little item first and the car second. That, my man, is a BAD move!

The amount you are getting per mile is about the exact amount the IRS allows for mileage deductions. If you are paying for expenses above the $.325, you are getting ripped!......just like when your girl friend decides on greener pastures....

Pardon me, but MARRY THE BITCH!😀
 


<< Pardon me, but MARRY THE BITCH!😀 >>



Tom, smiley or not, but that was probably the single most insulting line that has ever been dealt my way on this forum. You can flame my opinions, you can shoot holes through my logic, hell you can even call me a flaming liberal for all I care. It's all cool.

But - when you make an uwarranted comment like twords the woman who WILL be wife, you have totally and completely crossed any and every line of deceny.

Just so you know, the reason we haven't married is because of financial reasons. She is in pharmacy school and it runs about $15,000 a year. If we were married, she would have to claim my income and would loose the ability to wrap it up in stafford loans. I'm only 23, and she's not even 21 yet. We don't feel ready for marriage yet. We don't want to make that move until she is out of school.

 
Thanks Tominator, I just love being called that for absolutely no reason. Just because we don't have the traditional relationship or go about things in the traditional order, doesn't mean that I'm any less committed to him. In the future, I would seriously think things through before going and saying things like that if I were you.
 
You both know me well enough to know that no harm was meant, but I'll admit it was a rather lame attempt at humor.😱

Please accepy my most humble apology...

However, you are both very young and although you might think you have all the angles worked out, buying a house and being unmarried is a huge mistake! Do you have a lawyer to confer with? You really need one if you intend to go through with this.

Also, you seriously jeapordize your future marriage by living together....but you don't want to hear any statistics that a Marriage Counselor will give you because YOU are different.

BTW, you should always have a lawyer to represent you in ANY real estate dealings...listen now or learn later...I've been there.

I'll also add that I've been called every name in the book on these forums...and yes some 'Elite' Members have even insulted my wife and family...without apology! I can only sat that I've been called worse by better...
I took it in stride. My apology is real and I'm sorry if you thought I'd stoop to such a low level as it surely was not intended to be an insult.
 
I'm not going to turn this into a &quot;living in sin&quot; thread, but we have lived together for two years. You can keep your statistics, I already know about them.

We may be young, but our acheivements and maturity are far beyond many others who are our same age.

 
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