Northampton-based Travis Perkins, which has been supplying the UK's building and construction markets for more than 200 years, operates 21 businesses from around 2,000 outlets and has more than 30,000 employees in the UK and Ireland.

Following a market tender last year, the company added to its range of flexible benefits available to staff by selecting the car salary sacrifice scheme from Car Salary Exchange for all eligible employees.

The scheme launched in early March this year, and in the first few weeks has seen more than 180 new vehicle orders. The most popular makes have been Audi, Citroen, Toyota and Mazda, while the cars ordered have had average carbon emissions of just 102g/km.

Travis Perkins employees can access up to 4,000 new cars available through the scheme and generate quotes online via the Car Salary Exchange online quotation platform, which can be accessed from desk top computers, tablets or mobile phones.

Car Salary Exchange technical staff produced a bespoke front end to the platform to allow Travis Perkins employees to check their salary levels, their hours worked and the other benefits they are entitled to, to ensure they did not breach national minimum wage levels.

To increase awareness of the scheme, Car Salary Exchange personnel will be holding a series of roadshows, formal presentations and drop-in sessions across the UK to promote the new colleague benefit.

Paul Nelson, group head of reward, Travis Perkins, said: “We are really pleased with the positive reaction from our employees which, in the first few weeks from launch, has seen around 15%of our eligible employee population register interest in the scheme, along with an initial order take of more than 180 cars across a wide range of manufacturers.

“We view the car benefit as a valuable enhancement to our range of employee benefits and are confident that, from a good start, it will continue to grow in popularity with our colleagues,” he said.

Graham Hale, chief executive of Fleet Hire, added: “We are proud to have been selected as Travis Perkins’ preferred premier provider and look forward to working closely with them to maximise employee take up.”