The corporate automobile. It became a standing symbol of corporate life across the days of the Gregory Peck movie, The Man within the Gray Flannel Suit. It remains to be — and can proceed to be — a beneficial perk for attracting and retaining top talent and keeping them protected and productive.
Yet company automobile policies deserve periodic scrutiny, as budgets, fleet makeup, and organizational priorities change. At the identical time, latest reimbursement programs and greater insights gleaned from benchmarking data are introducing alternative viewpoints that challenge traditional assumptions.
As 2026 approaches, fleets are reassessing how they balance fleet and reimbursement based on asset mix, risk tolerance, and operational philosophy.
So how should fleets determine who truly needs an organization vehicle in 2026, and when reimbursement makes more sense?
The Traditional Framework Still Applies
The foundational framework for company vehicle eligibility stays intact across the fleet industry, and most fleets still operate inside familiar parameters.
“You’re going to drive so many miles a yr. You’re in a client-facing role; subsequently, we want to ensure that you’re in a vehicle that reflects our brand. Otherwise you’re an executive, upper-level leadership, and as a perk of working for us, that is what you get,” said Jason Kraus, vp of operations at Mike Albert Fleet Solutions.
Fleet eligibility decisions increasingly hinge on detailed cost and risk analyses, not only mileage thresholds or job titles.
Mileage thresholds (commonly within the 10,000 to fifteen,000 annual business-mile range) proceed to function a primary benchmark. Job function, asset necessity, and seniority still carry weight. For a lot of fleets, the company-owned vehicle stays the default solution for roles with predictable, sustained business use.
What has modified just isn’t the framework itself, but the way it is being tested on the margins.
What still determines company vehicle eligibility today, and what has modified?
Where the Gray Zone Starts
Eligibility decisions are rarely controversial on the extremes. Traditionally, employees who drive 25,000 business miles per yr are clearly eligible for an organization vehicle, whereas those that drive 2,000 miles usually are not. Nevertheless, some fleets operate at far higher thresholds based on role, geography, or asset type.
For many fleets, the challenge lies in the center ground, though that middle ground can vary from 7,000 to twenty,000 miles annually. A rigid policy can result in unintended cost, productivity, or risk outcomes.
“I don’t know an absolute dividing line,” Kraus said. “In case your policy says 10,000 miles and someone misses it by 500, is that a draconian absolute? Or do you step back and take a look at what it really costs to exchange that vehicle with rentals or reimbursement?”
In practice, fleets often discover that the hard and soft costs of not providing an organization vehicle, resembling short-term rental expense, administrative complexity, lost productivity, and worker dissatisfaction, can erode any theoretical savings.
Ted Chan, fleet manager at Schindler, said eligibility still rests totally on job role and expected annual business mileage, with added consideration for tool and equipment needs, territory coverage, and customer-facing expectations.
“What’s evolved more recently is a sharper give attention to who truly must drive, versus where shared vehicles, pooling, right-sizing, or other mobility options make sense, particularly as sustainability goals put pressure on tighter role-based eligibility,” he said.
At what point does reimbursement make more sense from a financial perspective?
The Reimbursement Dividing Line
The perennial query stays: Do many fleets still allocate more company vehicles than vital, particularly for passenger-vehicle roles?
Lee Adam, director of product marketing at Cardata, said the choice deserves a full, data-driven cost comparison.
“An important step is doing a real apples-to-apples evaluation,” Adam said. “Meaning taking a look at total cost of ownership for a fleet vehicle that features depreciation, insurance, fuel, maintenance, taxes, and administrative costs, after which comparing that on to what reimbursement would actually cost for a similar role.”
“For those who’re not comparing apples to apples, it’s very easy to get the unsuitable answer,” she said. “If one among those (reimbursement) variables is missing out of your fleet cost equation, you’re not solving the issue accurately.”
Cardata frames reimbursement as a versatile alternative when a job doesn’t require a specialized or branded asset. For a lot of standard sales, service, or field management roles where a typical passenger vehicle suffices, Adam said structured, IRS-compliant reimbursement programs may be viable.
Cardata estimates that fleets may spend 25–30% more to lease and maintain company vehicles than with structured reimbursement programs, though Adam noted that outcomes vary widely by vehicle class, mileage, geography, and insurance history.
Those on the fleet side, nevertheless, caution that reimbursement outcomes depend heavily on execution. Kraus said reimbursement can easily be dearer than an organization vehicle, and that reimbursement doesn’t eliminate the corporate’s liability.
Kraus asserted the benefits of company-owned fleets, including control over maintenance, consistent safety oversight, driver behavior monitoring, and clearer data visibility. These aspects turn into increasingly vital as liability scrutiny intensifies.
Ultimately, the breakeven mileage point varies by fleet and should be determined using each organization’s actual cost structure.
A Real-Life Evaluation
One example where reimbursement meaningfully shifted the maths comes from NOV, Inc., where Kimberly Fisher manages a take-home and pooled fleet of mostly 3/4-ton pickups.
In NOV’s case, the catalyst was not cost reduction, but risk exposure. “This was driven by a really hefty insurance payout,” Fisher said. “Our risk and legal team principally said, ‘We’d like to get a few of this liability off the road.’”
When NOV modeled reimbursement using its actual truck acquisition costs and prevailing IRS mileage rates, the breakeven point was far higher than traditional thresholds. “The breakeven for us without delay is 21,500 business miles, based on the trucks we buy today and the IRS mileage rate,” Fisher said.
The evaluation underscored how economics that work for sedans don’t necessarily translate to heavier-duty assets. In consequence, NOV raised its mileage threshold for company vehicles from roughly 15,500 business miles to 18,500 miles annually for certain roles.
Fisher said the change is predicted to shift roughly 300 drivers out of company-owned vehicles, though she noted that some driver resistance could reduce the web impact to closer to 200 vehicles. Even at that level, the adjustment represents a meaningful reduction in fleet size, exposure, and operating cost.
The evaluation reinforced a two-tier eligibility approach, under which field technicians who require tools and equipment qualify for company trucks at much lower mileage levels, while sales and management roles face substantially higher thresholds.
Managing Liability
Fisher was careful to notice that shifting drivers to reimbursement doesn’t eliminate liability tied to business use. Nevertheless, she said removing company-owned vehicles from certain roles helped narrow the corporate’s exposure in situations outside core business use.
“Liability doesn’t go away simply because the vehicle isn’t company-owned,” Fisher said. “But a non-company vehicle changes the danger profile in certain situations, particularly outside of labor hours or when the vehicle is clearly not getting used for business.”
In NOV’s case, the goal was to not eliminate risk, but to cut back the variety of company-owned assets on the road and improve legal defensibility following a big claim.
Tightening Controls on Eligibility
Fairly than overhauling eligibility models, many fleets are making incremental adjustments.
At Essential Utilities, vp of fleet Charlie Stevenson described a series of targeted refinements. The corporate recently raised its mileage threshold from 10,000 to 11,000 business miles, tightened personal-use eligibility by job level, and implemented a cap on take-home commutes.
“We evaluated the profit to the corporate for allowing that commute and limited it to 35 miles a method,” Stevenson said.
Utility trucks and crew vehicles remain eligible below the mileage threshold because of operational necessity, while sedans and SUVs are subject to stricter enforcement.
“As we reviewed personal use and commute privileges, this was done to limit our liability in addition to control cost,” Stevenson said.
When the Company Automotive Is Non-Negotiable
For some organizations, reimbursement just isn’t into account in any respect.
At Cameron Enterprises, every eligible worker receives a automobile. “All those eligible for an organization vehicle get one,” said fleet manager Tim Lovett.
Company leadership views fleet vehicles as strategic infrastructure and essential for brand representation, safety oversight, and talent attraction.
“The vehicle you drive as much as a customer is a mirrored image of the corporate,” Lovett said. “We would like to make sure every sales colleague has a reliable and protected mode of transportation, and it’s a perk that helps us attract one of the best of one of the best.”
Sales employees receive company vehicles no matter annual mileage, though most drive between 2,000 and three,000 miles per 30 days. Vehicles are tiered by performance, closely maintained, and replaced with aggressive cycles.
Lovett said Cameron has chosen not to make use of a reimbursement program, partly because of liability concerns related to vehicle condition and maintenance control. “Our goal is to observe vehicle maintenance and condition to best position our fleet with safety top of mind.”
Data, Telematics, and the Limits of Visibility
Across models, data quality has turn into a defining consider eligibility decisions.
Kraus argues telematics is foundational, not only for safety and maintenance, but for determining who must have an organization vehicle in the primary place.
“If you would like to electrify your fleet, you wish telematics. For those who want managed maintenance, you wish telematics. If you would like to understand who gets an organization automobile, you wish telematics,” he said.
Others note that reimbursement platforms and expense systems can deliver compliance without constant vehicle monitoring, an approach that will resonate with executive drivers or reimbursed populations.
In point of fact, many fleets operate hybrid environments. Executive vehicles often lack telematics entirely, creating visibility gaps at the same time as accountability expectations increase.
So how should fleets determine if reimbursement or company-managed vehicles are right for them?
Why There Is Still No Single Answer
The evolving debate underscores a straightforward reality: there is no such thing as a universal rule for company vehicle eligibility in 2026.
For a lot of fleets, company-owned vehicles remain essentially the most practical, controllable, and defensible solution. For others, reimbursement plays a targeted, strategic role.
The danger lies not in selecting one model over one other, but in applying it too broadly, with out a detailed data evaluation.
“A fleet manager’s job is to discover all the choices — even the bad ones,” Kraus said. “However the advice should only be the choice with the best likelihood of success.”
This Article First Appeared At www.automotive-fleet.com
