Since August 1, more than a hundred lease drivers have been testing the impact of payment per kilometer driven on their car use, the Business Drivers Association (VZR), one of the initiators of the test, reports Tuesday.
If you own a ‘company car’, you normally pay a fixed amount per month to be able to use the car privately. This tax addition is independent of how many kilometers someone drives. As a result, lease drivers are not encouraged to use other means of transport. The test must clarify whether paying per kilometer does this. The consequences for tax revenues and the susceptibility to fraud of such a system are also examined.
The test, which will run until the end of the year, involves 110 people. It is a simulation. This means that the participants gain insight into what they would have to pay if they were actually charged per kilometer driven. In practice, however, they still simply pay the usual fixed addition amount.
A test may be started at a later stage in which the participants actually have to pay an amount per kilometer and there is therefore no longer a simulation. A third step would be to implement the system on a large scale. However, it is not that far yet.
The study was commissioned by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management and the Mobility Alliance, which includes ANWB, Bovag and various public transport companies.