Company Car Allowance vs. Mileage vs. Company Car for Sales Reps in Medical, Clinical or Healthcare….

One of my hiring managers (a client) wrote this (and kindly agreed to share it with you):
“While it isn’t scientific and it certainly has room for bias; my last poll of our team was they like the full mileage reimbursement as it lets them own the car of their choice. We pay $0.55 / mile. If they don’t buy a gas guzzler, they can almost afford to own any moderate to upper moderate car they wish. Our typical rep does about 1,300 miles per month. If you presume 20 mpg, attainable and far below Prius standards by a stretch, they pay less than $200 per month in gasoline at $3/gallon. This leaves ‘em after gas funds of $450 for payments and maintenance at tax free dollars.

When I do this math for reps they see that they’d need a car allowance of $900 per month to make the same (gas, payment, federal / state tax). How many companies have a car allowance that generous?

Our CFO has hinted at moving to company car purchases, but our reps have voted twice now to keep status quo.

I think on the surface a car sounds good and without prior experience would seem like the best; however our reps have learned to like the tax free payments and selecting the car of their own choice.”

We recently took a vote on just this question.  Our results so far:

43% - want the car

22% - Who cares about the car…we just want a job!

19% - car allowance

16% - mileage 

If you’ve some data about the car question - please share it with us.  (Are there strong trends that differ by area….whether it’s clinical revenue, pharma revenue, clinical device sales, biotech sales, imaging sales, hospital equipment revenue, or other healthcare sales?)

Also, if you would like to work with a company with a management team thoughtful enough to ask which you would prefer, send me your information - maybe I can introduce you to my hiring managers…..

Article courtesy of  Peggy McKee - Owner / Senior Recruiter at the nationally
recognized medical and laboratory sales recruiting team of PHC Consulting.
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