Mileage Expenses – are you being “fiddled”?
How closely do you monitor the mileage expenses submitted by company vehicle drivers? This article from Automotive Industry Digest makes pretty depressing reading regarding attitudes to mileage expense claims.
Mileage is the biggest area of potential expense fiddling with over one in four (26%) judging it acceptable to exaggerate expense claims when the ‘mileage rate paid by the employer doesn’t cover the actual car and fuel costs’.
How can companies avoid bogus mileage expenses claims?
- Provide fair mileage reimbursement
- Use trackers to gauge the correct mileage being claimed
- Have Fleet Management Software as part of your Fleet Management System
- Use Fuel Cards for payment of fuel
This looks like an issue that is not going to disappear…
Worryingly, the study also identifies the workforce of tomorrow – young people and students – as the groups most likely to condone expense fiddling. One in four (28%) of those aged 18 to 24, and one in three (32%) students in full time education, believe that it is acceptable to exaggerate expense claims by up to 10%, and in some cases by even more.
What does that say about those asked? Is it just because they aren’t aware of the realities and legalities of the workplace and employment contracts? Or are they just more likely to be dishonest??
