Newsletter

10/05/2012

Savings measures for the business driver/ raster visible in Fleet Agent

In this newsletter we would like to speak with you about the consequences of the austerity programme for the business driver. Furthermore, once again an improvement has been implemented in Fleet Agent which I would like to share with you.

Austerity programme
On 26 April VVD, CDA, D66, GroenLinks and ChristenUnie agreed to the outline of an austerity programme. Two measures from this programme are also important for business (lease) drivers. Please note; the outline of the programme is set, but details will be developed further the following weeks.  Subsequently the agreements will be included in the 2013 Tax Plan draft, which will be presented on Budget Day (Prinsjesdag). This proposal will be discussed in October/November by the (new) Dutch House of Representatives.

Scrapping of tax-free travel reimbursement
Currently, the employer can reimburse the first 19 cents per kilometre of the travel cost reimbursement tax free. This will no longer be the case under the current plans. Tax will soon have to be paid on the entire amount.

Taxable amount
If a driver is allowed to drive a company lease car, he / she must in principle make an annual choice to use it privately or not. If the lease driver chooses to use the car for more than 500 kilometres for private use, then a taxable amount will be charged for the vehicle. Therefore, if the driver uses the vehicle for less than 500 private kilometres per year, no taxable amount is charged, as of now.

This measure would mean that soon every lease driver who drives less than 500 km per year for private purposes will also be taxed. Depending on the applicable rate this will lead to 0, 14, 20 or 25% of a taxable amount.

The Ministry of Finance does not yet know whether the scheme will only apply to new lease contracts or whether current lease contracts will also come under the new regime. Whether delivery vans will also come under this regime is also unclear.

Raster visible in Fleet Agent
With each contract with a contract term of 24 months or longer, Alphabet offers a raster. With the raster you can see precisely what the lease rate will be if less or more kilometres are driven than has been contractually agreed or if the contract term of the lease contract changes. You know in advance what the financial consequences are of such a change. More information about the raster can be found here.

From now, the raster can also be consulted in Fleet Agent via the Contract menu. Would you like to easily and simply consult the raster in Fleet Agent? Contact you account manager so we can activate the raster in Fleet Agent for you.

13/04/2012

Fiscal changes from 1 July 2012

Fiscal developments are currently very much in the news. The government is changing fiscal legislation from 1 July 2012. This can have consequences for the taxes and lease rates for your car fleet, as well as for the income tax of your drivers. Aside from the fiscal changes, I would like to update you about our Cleaner Car Contract ambition and about the possibility to follow Alphabet via Twitter.

Making fiscal adjustments clearer 
We would like to inform you of the below initiatives with which Alphabet provides insight into these important changes.

Fleet Agent adjustment
As stated, the various changes in car taxes can have consequences for you and your colleagues. The car and motorcycle tax (BPM), road taxes and the level of taxable addition can change in the (near) future. From now on, all Fleet Agent users will be informed of these forthcoming changes when making calculations for a vehicle. We will indicate whether the car and motorcycle tax will be different, whether the taxable addition will change and whether road tax will be applied and on which date the changes will come into effect.

The same indications return for the assessment of an order in Fleet Agent so that you, prior to giving your approval, are aware of which changes you should take into account.

Tax page on alphabet.com/nl
By using the tax page on our website, you and your drivers can simply and effectively calculate what the possible consequences are of the new fiscal legislation by means of various calculation tools. For example, it is possible to calculate per model whether the vehicle can be delivered prior to or after 1 July 2012, which can have significant consequences for the taxable addition and lease rates.

It is also possible to calculate whether there will be changes for the model of your choice in terms of the various taxes. It appears that approximately 60% of the current vehicles with 14% or 20% addition will also be subject to this addition percentage after 1 July 2012. After 1 July, there will therefore still be ample choice for your drivers in the lower addition categories at Alphabet.

The above calculation tools and additional information can be found here on our tax page.

Cleaner Car Contracts

In April 2010, Alphabet signed a Cleaner Car Contract with the Dutch Foundation for Nature and the Environment (Stichting Natuur en Milieu). This contract shows Alphabet’s ambition to purchase vehicles with an average CO2 emission of less than 120 grammes per kilometre in 2012. Despite the fact that 2012 is not over yet, we would like to bring you up to date with the current state of affairs:

[Text in graph: Average CO2 emission of purchased Alphabet car fleet
The figure of 2012 is the situation as of 26 March 2012.]

Does our ambition appeal to you? Please sign a Cleaner Car Contract with Alphabet. Naturally, we can inform you further about this. For more general information about Cleaner Car Contracts and our ambition, I would like to refer you to this page.

Follow Alphabet on Twitter
Alphabet also communicates via Twitter. In this way you can be quickly and easily kept up to date with the latest news and the developments about Alphabet. Our webcare team will also respond to your queries and comments. You can follow us via @alphabet_nl.

15/03/2012

Electronic invoicing
In January 2012, the first 10 Alphabet clients were authorised to test the new functionality of electronic invoicing in Fleet Agent. This subsequently means that they now have access to online invoicing and can consult specifications and download the invoices. The findings that have come to light from this test phase have now, more or less, all been solved.

From April of this year, we will roll out electronic invoicing, step by step. Clients who have earlier indicated that they wish to directly switch from the delivery of paper invoices to electronic invoices will be authorised for this in the month of April. If you are in this group, Alphabet will naturally inform you promptly.

BMW Experience Day
BMW Netherlands gives drivers of various Dutch car rental companies, including Alphabet, the chance to get to know BMW even more. On 4 and 5 April, the BMW Experience Day for Alphabet drivers will take place in Zandvoort. During one of these days, your drivers will have the opportunity to get to know Connected Drive and Efficient Dynamics Drive and take a test drive in a BMW of their choosing. Alphabet will invite drivers for this via e-mail shortly. When you or your drivers indicated that you do not wish to receive this sort of mail, this will obviously be respected.

10/02/2012

Replacing fuel passes and the start of a media campaign

Which fuel passes are set to be cancelled?

This concerns only the passes that look like the pictures below: national MTC fuel passes with the old ING Car Lease house style. The relevant drivers have been informed and received a welcome pack with their new Alphabet fuel pass in late January.

Which fuel passes will NOT be cancelled?

-       Passes of rental cars will not be replaced in connection with the circulation speed.

-       International fuel passes (the so-called MTC/DKV passes)

-       Branded fuel passes such as Travel cards, Shell cards and other brands.

When will the relevant fuel passes be cancelled?

Phased cancellation of the relevant fuel passes will start on 15 February.

Media campaign

In order to introduce our new name Alphabet in the market and underline our core values, we will start a new national media campaign on Monday 13 February: Alphabet Auto Lease. Surprisingly Predictable.

We want to do things differently. And the alphabet expresses that: When someone says A, he/she has got to say B. And you know it will be ending with X, Y and Z. Everyone knows the alphabet - it’s a bit boring and sometimes very predictable. In our view, this refers to how you lease a car from Alphabet. Once you start, you know what comes next and where it ends. You even know how it ends. And - not unimportantly - at what investment. Clear and predictable, just like the alphabet.

The next few weeks you will find this message on the radio, the internet and billboards.

07/02/2012 

Welcome pack

The drivers with an MTC fuel pass with the former ING Car Lease house style meanwhile received a new Alphabet fuel pass. All drivers with other fuel passes and drivers without a fuel pass received an Alphabet service pass (card with contact information).

We kindly request you notify your drivers of the fact that phased cancellation of all orange MTC passes with the old house style will start on 15 February.

Amended tax regime for lease cars in 2012

By mid 2012, the limits of BPM exemption (exemption of tax on new vehicles) and low company car value tax categories will be limited. Furthermore, as from 1 January 2014, vehicle tax will be charged on highly economical cars (cars with a CO2 emission of 50 grams per kilometre or less will, for the time being, remain exempt after this date). This may have implication to both the employer and the driver.

The implications at individual car level may be significant

For example, a driver chooses a Seat Ibiza ST 1.2 TDI e-ecomotive 55kW Style, which currently falls outside his lease category. The table below shows the changes:

* the amounts mentioned are indicative

We will notify your drivers of the amended tax regime and the implications of the car selected when issuing a quotation as from March 2012 (also on Fleet Agent). This way, you are aware of any future cost increases before ordering a lease car.

What are the implications to the fleet?

At your request, we could prepare an overview of the financial implications to the relevant cars in your fleet. If you would like to minimise the impact and limit costs that would fall outside the lease categories, you may wish to adjust the lease scheme accordingly.

A set of useful tools are available to you and your drivers on alphabet.com/nl:

• An overview of cars that are most impacted by the tax regime amendments
• A tool indicating the amendments in the tax regime for each car up to 2015, as presented in the above example.
• A tool that allows you to view the amount and duration of the car value tax.
• An overview of delivery times (will a car be delivered before or after 1 July 2012?).

24/01/2012

General Terms and Conditions

New General Terms and Conditions are an evident part of adopting a new name. In the fast world of cars and ever-changing mobility, this may not be the most dynamic subject - but to us, simplifying the terms and conditions is certainly a challenge and an explicit wish. In our opinion, critically editing and supplementing the contents resulted in a more accessible document. Furthermore, we added the Grid to our services. This concerns a unique new approach of our lease product.

The terms and conditions are available for downloading on our website. The key changes to the content compared with the previous version of June 2006 are listed below.

New

• The Grid: For each lease contract, you will be informed of the leasing rates applicable for various combinations of contract term and annual mileage. That enables you to know exactly where you stand at the end of the contract. (Article 14).
• It has become easier to enter into a lease contract for an associated company based on the agreement (Article 2).
• If a car cannot be driven anymore due to technical faults, a replacement lease vehicle can be used at a lease rate (Article 10).

Amendments

• Regarding the costs of intermediate termination of the lease contract, we now discern between termination during the first two years of the lease contract and termination after the first two years (Article 15.4).
• The contract now specifies that the state in which a lease car is returned will be determined by Alphabet or a party selected by Alphabet (Article 17).
• As from now, we will send invoices electronically by default (Article 18).
• Fines will be forwarded in a digital format free of charge (Article 21).
• In the context of future developments, the title of the fuel pass was changed into Mobility Pass (Mobiliteitspas) and certain services were included in the terms and conditions (Article 25).
• The General Terms and Conditions of rental will be provided separately.

Rates table

Finally, some rates in the associated rates table were updated:

• No fee will be charged for electronic receipt of invoices.
• The management report fees will be abolished.
• The fees for a parking permit statement will be abolished.
• The administrative fees for handling replacement transport separate from the lease contract were raised to EUR 17.50.

As of 1 February 2012, the new General Terms and Conditions have become applicable to all lease contracts that became effective or will become effective on or after this date. Any agreements in derogation will naturally remain in effect undiminished.  

06/01/2012

2012 a cumbersome year for business drivers

By mid 2012, the CO2 limits for BPM (tax on new vehicles) will become stricter, due to which fewer cars will be eligible for BPM exemption for highly economical cars.

Furthermore, drivers must increasingly accept compromises if they want to drive a car with a lower taxation value.

In addition to BPM and company car value taxation, various car schemes became significantly stricter during 2011 according to an analysis. The employer increasingly charges an employee contribution for private use of the car.

As the fine amounts and parking rates are set to increase during 2012, driving a car will become more expensive to all drivers. For a summary of this analysis conducted by the Dutch Company Car Association, please refer to  alphabet.com/nl.

Did you know that Alphabet developed a very useful tool, allowing you to see in a glance what a lease car will cost you now and in the future? This tool includes all changes to the tax system up to 2015. You can access this tool here.

New drop in used car prices expected

The market for used cars in the Netherlands was hit hard by the 2008 credit crisis. A new low similar to the one in 2008 cannot be excluded for 2012. The underlying reasons include the weak economy, lack of consumer confidence, the mismatch between supply and demand and the changes to the tax regime. Please find more information here.

New driver folders to be sent

On Monday 9 January, we will be sending new driver folders containing the new fuel or service pass and useful information. Both the folder and the passes are in the Alphabet house style. The PIN code of the passes has remained unchanged. However, please note that the current passes will be cancelled 4 weeks after delivery of the new ones. Your drivers may destroy the old pass once they received the new one.

CrossOver Live!

Specially for your drivers, Alphabet will organise the CrossOver Live! event at the International Film Festival Rotterdam on 27 January 2012. the IFFR Alphabet Premiere. During the IFFR Alphabet Premiere, your drivers can count on a suitable VIP treatment, an imaginative introduction by Dutch performer Jules Deelder and a real premiere of a special new movie! We are keeping the title of the movie a surprise for the time being.

27/12/2011

We are happy to confirm that the VAT number and the bank account number have remained unchanged. The complete information is therefore as follows:

Bank account number: 65.30.40.709 (ING bank)
VAT number: NL004045907B01

19/12/2011

Our contact data
Our e-mail addresses have changed. The extension has become ‘@alphabetcarlease.nl’.

New website / Fleet Agent
We are confident that the simplified navigation, new look and relevant articles and topics will lead to an improved online user experience.
You can also easily log in to Fleet Agent via the updated website. The link to Fleet Agent has been changed to fleetagent.alphabet.com. If you have always logged in to Fleet Agent directly, for example using a bookmark in your Favourites or via a shortcut on your desktop, I advise you to adjust these.

Mailing new Chamber of Commerce data
We will send you an e-mail on Tuesday 20 December which will include the new extract of the Trade register of the Chamber of Commerce. This extract includes the changed legal name. Our Trade register registration number will remain unchanged.

14/12/2011

Online invoicing
The new functionality offering the possibility to digitally invoice in Fleet Agent will go ‘live’ shortly. In the light of the forthcoming name change, we are currently making the final cosmetic adjustments to the online platform.

This specifically means that we can offer the first clients the possibility to invoice online from January 2012. Naturally we will inform you promptly, in order that you as a client can also make use of this new functionality.

With online invoicing you will not only have 24/7 online access to all your invoices, specifications and the payment status of invoices, it will also be possible to download the invoice yourself and to  upload it into your financial system if so desired.

The advantages for you are:
• Faster access to a particular invoice
• No more incorrectly entered invoice data
• Invoices can be easily located
• You can save on the administration of processing a paper invoice.

Update: ING Car Lease to become Alphabet

Administrative information
With the new name, the registration in the Trade register of the Chamber of Commerce will also change. It is possible that you require this data for your financial administration. In order to be able to assist you with this, we will send a copy of the new extract of the Chamber of Commerce around 23 December, which will contain our new and comprehensive legal name. Our Trade register registration number will remain unchanged.

New General Terms and Conditions
Towards the end of the month of January we will send you our new general terms and conditions. From that moment these new terms and conditions will apply to all new orders. This is necessary in the light of our name change, but we also believe this to be the right moment to critically review the structure of our current general terms and conditions. An often heard reaction has been that these are too long, ambiguous and not transparent. Maximum clarity has been the point of departure for rewriting our general terms and conditions. Ultimately, the arrangements in the framework agreement and addendum remain the point of departure.

New name, new logo
A new house style and a brnd new logo will be introduced with the new Alphabet name. We will reveal this new logo in a mailing to you, your drivers and other contacts.

15/11/2011

No 7% addition for electric cars
Contrary to earlier reports, for the time being there will be no 7% addition for the category of vehicles emitting less than 50 grams CO2 per kilometre.

The definitive regulation is as now follows:
• Entirely electric cars (that do not emit CO2) being used to the end of 2016 will be exempt from additions for a period of 60 months. 
• Cars with a CO2 emission of less than 50 gr/km (plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles with a range extender)
    o used to the end of 2013 will be exempt from additions for a period of 60 months.
    o used from 01-01-2014 will fall within the 7% addition category.

ING Economisch Bureau (ING Dutch Economic Desk): decline in car sales
Car dealers should expect considerably lower sales figures next year. This is shown in an ING Economisch Bureau analysis. Weaker economic circumstances have resulted in a decline in consumer trust and reduced purchasing power. The fierce growth in the car market earlier this year came to a halt in recent months. The expectation is that the number of registrations of new cars will fall to 475,000 in 2012, while 540,000 registrations are still expected in 2011.