THERE is a clear trend towards hybrid working, mixing home and office work, and it’s a trend that favours used car sales.
The data on home working was provided by a survey carried out by YouGov in September last year. Now, it seems some businesses are moving to match this desire. BP has told 25,000 staff that they are to work from home two days per week, and HSBC has announced plans to cut office space by 40% to meet the new hybrid working model.
They are not alone and, according to MotoNovo Finance Chief Executive Mark Standish, a potentially positive step for vehicle sales. He said: “A reluctance to use public transport and the need for flexible transport favours the accessibility of personal transport. We can see from the increasing traffic on our used car marketplace, findandfundmycar.com that more people are looking to used cars and we see much of this being driven by the need for affordable alternative to public transport.”
The pressure on public transport is evident as footfall remains very low. ScotRail is to be nationalised, and the West Midlands Mayor has recently pointed out that a mass shift to “hybrid working” will leave public transport operators struggling to break even. People are choosing cars, motorcycles and bikes. Within this, affordability is critical
While lock-down saw some household trading down from two to one car, Standish sees this as temporary. “In many ways, we have moved back to the freedom and flexibility of a car as a preferred travel option. While some households placed two car ownership on pause over the last year, I expect that the need for flexibility, inherent in the hybrid working model, will see dual car ownership as normal.
“With people mindful of finances, the immediate outlook favours the appeal of two used cars on the drive and strong used car sales in recent weeks certainly point to this outcome.”
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