Young & Rubicam Brands - Case Study

Before Autopia

Young & Rubicam Brands is a collection of advertising and communication  organisations with in excess of 186 offices and 7000 colleagues all united around a single mission: to resist the usual.

Back in November 2008 however, they were doing the usual with their novated leases. A global fleet management company was running the program, and not doing a great job of it.

The take-up-rates were reasonable, however HR Director Elvas Basile felt that his employees deserved more from the benefit. Elvas is a car enthusiast himself, and he recognised a key shortfall in the fleet manager’s offering - the total absence of advice on choosing the right car for employees. He knew from experience that when employees were simply quoted on the exact vehicle and finance structure they asked for, the long term financial results rarely worked out for the best. The existing supplier’s lease termination process was cause for concern and their inability to grandfather new recruits’ existing leases, was also problematic.

Even still, the main driver was the desire to offer the best benefit possible to his employees. Elvas went to market looking for a specialist offering a consultative and personalised service, rather than a provider with an online self-help calculator.

Our solution

Vehicle selection assistance
Our superior vehicle knowledge and independent advice on which is the best car, ensures none of our clients get talked into making ill-informed decisions by enthusiastic salesmen.

Finance and tax expertise
Our vehicle benefits specialists all have a high level of finance and tax expertise, which means that we put together the most profitable tax strategy possible. There are no surprises at the end of the lease for Autopia drivers.

Lightening quick terminations
Better than best practice termination process, including full FBT and cashflow reconciliation.

Grandfathering of existing leases
A common occurrence when we begin running a salary packaging program. This leaves a business with no barriers when onboarding key talent as we can assume management of any pre-existing finance arrangements.

"Automotive expertise, sourcing an excellent deal, quick to respond to enquiries, very patient and understanding throughout the process. We dealt with Geoff Payne, who was all of these things and more. Could not fault his level of professionalism across the whole process."
Jacqueline Paterson, The Campaign Palace

Results

In August 2009, Autopia re-launched the novated lease benefit for Y & R Brands through education sessions in key Sydney and Melbourne sites. One-on-one consultations began immediately afterwards. The utilisation of vehicle selection assistance and our finance and tax expertise has had great impact on the type of vehicle and term employees are now typically structuring. Changes that are delivering the best full circle financial results possible.

Autopia continue to facilitate periodic sessions for employees. As for the satisfaction levels of Y & R Brands employees with our personalised, one-on-one service model, well the results speak for themselves…

Source: Autopia Y&R new driver survey Aug 2009 - Nov 2010

”I was looking for a smart yet simple modern day, transparent and user friendly solution for all of our employee's car salary packaging needs. The Autopia offering appeared to meet our brief and since coming on board they have delivered and now more of our employees are realising the benefit of car packaging as a result”

Elvas Basile, HR Director, Y & R Brands