The contract hire, fleet management and salary sacrifice provider has reported that its Car Salary Exchange division now has over 100 live salary sacrifice car schemes in operation across the UK, in public, private and not-for-profit organisations, and is the preferred scheme for more than 10 of the industry’s leading benefit providers.

The new features and functionality of the new 2.1 platform now allow employees to save an unlimited number of vehicle quotes to their ‘garage’ tab, and then compare and contrast four of them side-by-side in one view.

Over 4,000 separate models are available on the system and quotations are provided for basic rate, higher rate and additional rate taxpayers. Each quote shows the car’s engine size, its CO2 emissions, fuel consumption and all standard equipment, as well as revealing the gross and net costs to the employee, along with savings in income tax and National Insurance and the Benefit-in-Kind tax payable.

Users can also further refine their vehicle choice by using an advance search feature which allows them to specify body style, fuel type, number of doors, transmission, CO2 emissions, mpg and number of seats.

A new ‘Top 10 hottest cars’ feature also shows users the most popular cars on the Car Salary Exchange system in terms of user quotes and orders generated.

The scheme also includes a frequently asked questions section that provides users with full details of how the scheme works, including eligibility, insurance, maintenance, paid and unpaid leave, end of contract damage, leaving the scheme and returning the vehicle. And there is an abbreviated list of key facts that ensures employees are fully informed of their financial obligations before entering the scheme.

The scheme also includes a new national living wage calculator for employees to check that the car they are considering is not going to take them below the national living wage threshold. If their chosen car does take them below the threshold, the platform allows them to remove items of specification to bring the vehicle quote back within permissible boundaries.

Zaf Iqbal, head of car salary exchange at Fleet Hire, said: “We wanted to make our second-generation salary sacrifice car scheme more user-friendly and easier to navigate, so that you didn’t need to be a car buff or an IT or tax specialist to use it.

“Within five or six clicks it is now possible for an employee to order a new car and for their employer to authorise that order. It really couldn’t be any easier or more straightforward,” he said.