Savings from accurate mileage recording helped one Fleet Innovations customer lease a new vehicle
After many years of struggling along with paper forms, post it notes and incomplete expenses, Universal Display decided it was time to try something different.
A chance encounter with the Fleet Innovations team during a Chamber of Commerce event gave Mike a potential solution.
The main problem that was faced by Mike Lapac the director of Universal Display was finding the time to record accurate mileage. Like any owner of an SME, Mike works hard with the day to day tasks of running and growing a successful business. Unfortunately some of the less enjoyable but necessary activities such as mileage expenses often get left until the last minute or simply never done. Mike found himself doing the business miles and paying for all the fuel and running costs of his personal vehicle but rarely did he ever get around to completing a mileage claim. The problem here is that his mileage alone was worth around £6000 a year and he was lucky if he claimed even 10% of this.
In talking to Fleet Innovations, we made him aware of our PEAK miles technology – this involves placing a small GPS device in the 12v Cigarette lighter socket of the vehicle and is then left in place all month while Mike drives around. The Trip Stick records each of the trips on its internal memory which is then uploaded to the PEAK mileage system via his laptop USB port at the end of the month.
“Before I used the PEAK Mileage Capture system I never claimed for my mileage. I have been using the PEAK system for over a year and in using the Trip Stick to record and claim my mileage I am now claiming back from around £300 – £500 per month! On the strength of this I was able to purchase a brand new car, a Hyundai ix35 at no extra cost to myself. The PEAK Mileage Capture system is easy to use, you simply plug your Trip Stick in the 12v socket of your car, wait for a signal and off you go. At the end of the month I take my Trip Stick out of the car and plug it into the computer and upload the journeys I’ve taken. Once logged into the system you select if your trips were business or personal (all personal trips remain secret to you). To be honest, I can’t understand why more people are not using this system it’s not rocket science” – Mike Lapac, Universal Display Ltd
Once logged in Mike only needs to review each trip which shows him the dates, times, the addresses and simple map of the route taken. This made Mike’s life easier as he just needs to go through each trip and indicate if the trip is business or personal and give a reason for the trip. The whole process from uploading the trips to completing his claim takes Mike about 10 minutes a month compared to well over an hour in the past. All Mike’s mileage data is now kept online in one place and can be easily exported and sent to his accountant.
Alex Baker,
Fleet Innovations
