Everyone wants to reach that level of their career where they start getting the really great extras. You are offered a few extra weeks of paid vacation, the company pays for your new laptop and Blackberry, or you finally get to roll away in that great company car. When the company gives you a car it's like a $10,000 raise that you get all at once. You could be a salesman for Barksdale control products and need to travel often to make your sales or you could just use it to get into the office every day and take you to and from different meetings. Either way, getting a company car is not necessarily all good news. Here are some pros and cons.
One of the major pros is that usually on top of the car itself, all of the maintenance and costs associated with driving that vehicle are paid for as well. If you're using the car daily for your real estate career, your company will reimburse you for gas and may even pay for all of the extras to the original model. They will definitely take care of your monthly insurance bills and could even pay for parking costs and car washes. When you add up all of these costs, it's easy to see why those who have to drive often from their London Ontario property into Toronto, for example, would really appreciate a company vehicle.
On the cons side, a company car does usually come with some strings attached. When you are in possession of one of these vehicles, some companies believe that means you are at their beck and call any time of any day. This could mean that you have to give up being the wedding photographer Burlington Ontario at your sister's wedding in order to head to work on a Saturday. They will expect you to drop everything in favor of work.
Another con is that there will usually be several rules and regulations that come with the car. They will expect that you are only using it for work purposes and some companies will even have a problem with you running an errand or picking up the kids after school in their vehicle. You may even need to submit trip logs every time you use the car. Like with an international SIM card, the company needs to account for all of the money being spent on the car. This means they need to know exactly where you went and why.
If you're company is about to hand you the keys to a new car, take a second to decide whether it's the best thing for you. If you believe it will be more work than gift, maybe you can negotiate for an extra that suits you better.
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