An interview with B. Van Aerschot about why you should lease as an SME

August 6, 2019

Bert Van Aerschot is the director of an HR consultancy company called Flexorius for two years now. It expanded fast to an SME with 12 employees. Just like every manager, Bert likes to save time on managing his fleet and knowing in advance what costs could be associated with it. That’s why he started looking for a leasing partner.

What kind of company do you run?

“Flexorius is an HR consultancy company. We assist our clients in their recruitment process, from well-being at work to payroll administration. Our employees receive a company car from us because they often have to travel to our customers. We bought the first company cars ourselves, but soon we realized that all the administrative follow-up would take up a lot of time. So that’s why we started looking for a lease partner.”

Why is leasing interesting for Flexorius?

“The most interesting to me is the transparency of the costs. You know in advance how much the car will cost you and you never face any financial surprises. Leasing is like an all-in formula, which means that as a manager you have little to no worries when it comes to managing a fleet. I don’t have to worry about anything and invest valuable time in it.” Indeed, if a driver has some car troubles, all he has to do is make a phone call. The road assistance will help your employees as fast as possible in Belgium or abroad. If the car needs to go out on maintenance, it will be picked up and taken back to the place of your choice. Changing to summer or winter tyres? Your drivers contact the tyre center themselves and everything else will be done for you. Isn’t that attractive?

How many cars does your company lease?

“Since October 2018, eight of our employees are driving with a LeasePlan car. The contracts run for four years and 30.000 kms per year. After that, when the contracts come to an end, they will receive new leasing cars. Currently our fleet consists of two Skoda Octavia, one Skoda Superb and our five juniors are driving with a well-equipped Seat Ibiza. For me, it is mainly the costs and the CO² emissions of the car that are the most important. And luckily, our leasing cars are fully in line with our corporate vision.”

Would you recommend leasing to other SMEs?

"Absolutely! You know exactly what your car costs every month, you don't have to spend time on administration, which means you save a lot of time. Plus, you do not need to worry about the sale of the car or the residual value. Even the economic risk lies within the leasing company."