LeasePLUS CEO Aytunc Tezay began his third term as the President of the Australian Salary Packaging Industry Association (ASPIA).

Salary packaging is a very important industry that has grown in popularity amongst businesses across Australia as employers seek to use all possible strategies to attract and retain talent to their organisations, and employees seek to lower their tax obligations. Through ASPIA, the ATO and Treasury now have an avenue to communicate with and better understand the dynamics of the industry.

“ASPIA has been working very hard since inception 3 years ago to ensure our entire industry supports this representative body,” says Mr. Tezay. “ASPIA is now providing the salary packaging industry with a presence in Canberra as an organisation with a comprehensive knowledge of the salary packaging industry.”

In his third term, Mr. Tezay says ASPIA will:

•   Continue involvement with the Fringe Benefits Tax Steering Committee
•   Foster better communication with appropriate departments within Treasury and the ATO
•   Implement minimum guidelines of behaviour in regard to service and inter-provider engagement

“ASPIA has an important role to play in helping businesses and employees gain the greatest possible benefit from salary packaging,” says Mr. Tezay. “To that end, we need to ensure policy-makers understand how salary packaging is helping the economy. Our industry needs to circumvent any more overnight policy changes.”

The Annual Inner Hunter v Outer Hunter cricket match once again took place at the Vacy cricket club on Wednesday 30th March. The Leaseplus side arrived to defend the title after winning the trophy last year. In less than ideal conditions (pouring rain) the match took place to battle out the title for the ‘Waddacrappa’ Trophy.

The Inner Hunter side were the first to bat and came out posting a healthy score of 188 for their 24 overs. The slow outfield didn’t bother most of the inner hunter batsman often hitting well over the heads of their outer hunter opponents. The pitch proved a little too narrow for a few of the bowlers with the wide call coming into play.

The break for lunch was a great opportunity for the Leaseplus team to dry off and build a strategy to win the game. The strategy was a simple one, score more runs than the other side. Unfortunately somewhere in the mix the strategy fell apart with the team only scoring 132.

The day once again proved to have some friendly competition mixed with a lot of laughs and some light hearted sledging from both sides. The Outer Hunter would like to thank Leaseplus for your extremely generous support in sponsoring our side. Whilst we did not retain the trophy this year we did look good. We are looking forward to challenging the Inner Hunter stations again next year and once again will don our Leaseplus shirts with pride.

Great news for all LeasePLUS customers!

As it continues to grow its capacity to provide a range of finance solutions for its clients, as well as create new markets for its novated car leasing business, LeasePLUS has created a strategic alliance with Gain Finance, also based in Melbourne.

Gain Finance is a part of The Gain Group, an organisation providing comprehensive financial and wealth management solutions for its clients. In addition to Gain Finance, The Gain Group has divisions in Accounting, Wealth Management, and Insurance.

“This is a very positive development for LeasePLUS clients, as it seamlessly opens up financing opportunities for our clients that can covers mortgages, equipment loans, chattel mortgages, as well as classic debt consolidation services,” says Aytunc Tezay, CEO of LeasePLUS.

In providing novated car leasing with market leading customer service, LeasePLUS is dedicated to the welfare of its clients on and off the road.

“Each and every day we’re working with clients to ensure they gain the most benefit from the lease, and in the process we make sure they stay on track in terms of managing the cost of the lease,” says Mr. Tezay. “The resource provided by Gain Finance means there’s a resource our clients can be referred to in order to manage their wider financing needs.”

Great news for all LeasePLUS customers!

LeasePLUS in arrangement with Motorpass has negotiated the removal of the $1.00 surcharge per transaction at all Coles Express outlets Australia wide.

Coles Express has charged our customers a transaction surcharge despite LeasePLUS numerous representations to have it removed!

“This is another example of LeasePLUS’s continual improvement program” says LeasePLUS CEO Aytunc Tezay.

“We are proud to remain on the leading edge of novated car leasing and we will continue to focus on our customer’s needs at all times by further reducing their motoring costs”

Aytunc says “it is my personal commitment to all of our customers to ensure they gain the greatest possible benefit from their novated lease”

LeasePLUS has always been committed to the welfare of our customers, and has decided to take this commitment one step higher by being committed to the welfare of our customers on the road.

“Road trauma is something our health and emergency services customers are dealing with every day, and in helping get people on the road with a novated car lease, it’s an issue that myself and my staff feel strongly about as well” says Managing Director Aytunc Tezay.

Recently Aytunc Tezay and Commercial Manager David Thiessen attended a one day driver training program at the John Bowe Driving School at Sandown Racecourse in Melbourne.

Having experienced both the theory and practical side of the course Aytunc and David quickly realised how beneficial this would be for LeasePLUS customers. As a result, LeasePLUS has decided to commit itself to ensuring its customers are some of the safest and most defensive drivers on the road.

We have therefore designed LeasePLUS for Life! Safe Driver Training, a major initiative of the company designed to:

Raise awareness of driving behaviour and habits

Identify and eliminate potentially hazardous driving behaviours

Teach new approaches and techniques to enable safer and more defensive driving

To make the change to being a defensive driver, LeasePLUS asks you to be open to changing your driving mindset – you may have a terrific attitude behind the wheel, but you may also realise that for the sake of your personal safety you need to make a change.

We often hear about fatalities on the roads, and over the last 20 years these numbers have gone down while the total number of cars on the road has almost tripled.

That’s great, but do less deaths on the road mean less crashes?

No, it doesn’t. Did you know there are 75,000 car crashes in NSW alone each year?

While people’s lives are being saved by the advanced safety equipment that’s being built into cars, surviving a car wreck can mean years of painful rehabilitation, brain damage, losing the ability to work, losing friends, and never fully recovering from a road trauma.

Don’t confuse the road toll with the vastly higher number of people whose lives are permanently changed because they believed they were ‘good drivers’.

If you’re new to LeasePLUS you’re invited to participate in the LeasePLUS for Life! Safe Driver Training course as our guest. That’s right, we’re subsiding your participation in this outstanding program 100%.

If you’re an existing customer, LeasePLUS invites you to join the course at a subsidised rate of $220 – a 50% reduction from the retail price of $440.

Call 1300 13 13 16 or visit our website at www.leaseplus.com.au for all the details.

“It feels like coming home!” enthuses CEO Aytunc Tezay in regard to launch of the new LeasePLUS website.

After months of development, the new site was launched in early December and provides visitors with a more engaging site that contains more information about novated car leasing than ever before.

Highlights of the new site include more comprehensive information on novated car leasing, the introduction of the LeasePLUS for Life! Safe Driver Training program, and the savings comparison and savings calculator.

“In addition to educating a visitor to novated car leasing through a series of graduated steps from an introduction to quite detailed FAQs, I think this site is a far more accurate reflection of the spirit and enthusiasm that we all have for the business,” says Aytunc.

“For instance, we’ve always had a major focus on customer service but we went through the process of examining what that really meant to the company. The insight we gained was that we take a personal interest in the welfare of our customers. It’s about keeping our customer happy and safe on the road, which has given life to initiatives including the creation of the safe driver training program.”

A new addition to the site is the CEO’s customer service commitment.

“This has always been a part of the business but never fully articulated. Customers need to know that LeasePLUS will always work harder, and that includes customers having access to me if they need to share something important with me about their car lease,” he says.

LeasePLUS CEO Aytunc Tezay began his second term as the inaugural President of the Australian Salary Packaging Industry Association (ASPIA) having completed a first term that saw the ASPIA Board successfully build the organisation’s profile and credentials.

"The catalyst for the formation of ASPIA was the changes to the FBT legislation in the 2008 Budget. As an industry, we had no visibility in influencing the sweeping changes made to legislation covering items such as meal entertainment cards and laptop computers,” says Mr. Tezay. “These changes removed benefits to employees and led to the closure of a number of businesses within the industry. Further, the savings estimates suggested by the Government in relation to the proposed changes were not given the scrutiny of industry experience.”

Salary packaging is a multi-billion dollar industry that has grown in popularity amongst businesses across Australia as employers seek to use all possible strategies to attract and retain talent to their organisations, and employees seek to lower their tax obligations. Through ASPIA, the ATO and Treasury now have an avenue to communicate with and better understand the dynamics of the industry.

“ASPIA has been as entity for 12 months, and the first major accomplishment was to ensure our entire industry supports this representative body, which has happened,” says Mr. Tezay. “ASPIA has also started providing the salary packaging industry with a presence in Canberra as an organisation with a comprehensive knowledge of salary packaging for employees, the services being provided within a given salary package, and in the issues surrounding those agreements.”

In his second term, Mr. Tezay says ASPIA will:

• Seek involvement with the Fringe Benefits Tax Steering Committee
• Strengthen communication with appropriate departments within Treasury and the ATO
• Set minimum guidelines of behaviour in regard to customer service and inter-provider engagement
• Establish a complaints handling facility for the customers of member firms

“ASPIA has an important role to play in helping businesses and employees gain the greatest possible benefit from salary packaging,” says Mr. Tezay. “To that end, we need to ensure policy-makers understand how salary packaging is helping the economy. Our industry needs to circumvent any more overnight policy changes.”