Cornwall Partners in Care News

Notes from the meeting

The cost calculations showed a saving of roughly £900 per year at 10k miles per year. This does not include the cost of installing a charge point (at anywhere from hanging an extension lead out of a window to £300-£800 for a professional install).

7,500 miles per year is the rough breakeven point for an electric vehicle. Most good sized providers will have a reasonable percentage of staff who exceed this annual mileage.

It would be a large investment and risk for a lot of providers who do not have past experience of leasing vehicles.

• Concerns around exceeding mileage allowance, damage to the vehicle at end of lease, etc
• Long lease times – what happens if a car is leased for a member of staff who leaves after 6 months and there are no other staff that need the car?
• Insurance for younger drivers might be hard to obtain. Insurance overall is likely to be very expensive.

Cars for individual staff members

+ Great if they exceed 7,500 miles annually and have access to charging at home.

- Who pays for a home charging point and what happens if the staff member leaves? Additional challenges and costs for staff that cannot access home charging.

Pool cars

+ Great if the provider has a site where charging points can be installed.

- If staff don’t have their own car (or good public transport), how will they get to the location to pick up pool car? Not a useful tool for recruiting new staff that don’t currently have their own car.

Providers seemed broadly supportive of exploring things further, however they would need some assurances on financial assistance around:

• Cost of installing charging points
• Lease costs
• Insurance costs

It was felt that one solution would be for the Council or CCG to take on leasing a pool of cars that providers could access on a more flexible bases. That way if a provider no longer needs a car after 6 months, it could be offered to another provider. Or if a staff member moves to another provider, they could take the car with them.

There does seem some appetite to explore things further once a firm offer is available for providers to consider.