Understanding your organisation’s vehicle emissions, and successfully driving them down, can seem like an impossible task – especially when everyone is using their own, private cars for their work-related trips. 

Increasingly, however, many of the UK’s most forward-thinking public and private sector organisations are rising to the challenge.

They’re simultaneously putting the brakes on their ‘grey fleet’ and boosting their green credentials, by giving staff simple, shared access to the latest low-emission vehicles.

Here’s why your organisation might want to do the same – and how to get started.

The grey fleet’s growing footprint

Relying on a grey fleet can have a significant, detrimental impact on an organisation’s ability to meet its sustainability targets.

A recent study commissioned by the BVRLA found that, in the UK public sector alone, the grey fleet emits 447,000 tonnes of CO₂ and 1,118 tonnes of NO_x every year. In the private sector, those figures rise to 3.2m tonnes of CO₂ and 7,038 tonnes of NO_x.

If these figures seem extraordinarily high, that’s partly because of the size of the UK’s grey fleet – it accounts for 40% of all the vehicles on UK roads – and partly because of its less-than-green composition. The simple truth is, left to our own devices, few of us choose to drive the latest, most efficient vehicles, or keep them serviced to the highest possible standard.

The myths putting the brakes on sustainable transport

In many cases, this reluctance to embrace greener vehicles stems a series of entrenched misconceptions around Ultra Low Emission Vehicle (ULEV) technology:

• An ULEV is the same as a purely electric vehicle. (This is, of course, far from true.)
• ULEVs can’t drive very far before needing a charge. (Ditto – especially when you consider ULEVs include hybrid options.)
• The infrastructure to support ULEVs is lacking. (And ditto.)

It’s such myths that give rise to fears of sitting on a hard shoulder, half-way down the M5, with no way to get moving again.

The best way to change your employees’ minds is through lived experience – when you give people the chance to get behind the wheel of an ULEV, they soon leave their misconceptions in the dust.

And that’s exactly what trailblazing organisations like NHS Fife are doing – with the help of tailored car club schemes.

How NHS Fife is minimising its grey fleet emissions

Last year, the Scottish healthcare provider gave its staff access to 30 brand new, eco-friendly vehicles for business travel. Delivered in partnership with Enterprise Car Club, the vehicles are located on nine healthcare sites, throughout Fife.

Staff can simply use our smartphone app to locate, book out, and unlock the vehicle they need – minimising less efficient trips in personal vehicles. (If you’re completely new to the idea of car clubs, here’s more on how Enterprise Car Club works.)

As Andrew Fairgrieve, NHS Fife's director of estates, facilities and capital services explained to BusinessCar, the vehicles will “receive regular cleaning and mechanical check-ups, so NHS Fife staff can be assured that the vehicles will be in tip-top condition whenever they need to use them".

NHS Fife plans to increase the number of vehicles available staff to 82 by the end of 2018 – leading to an over 80-tonne reduction in its annual CO₂ emissions. Even better, the programme is projected save the healthcare provider over £100,000 every year.

Three more models for cutting emissions with a car club

NHS Fife’s initiative is just one way a car club scheme could help you accelerate towards your organisation’s sustainability goals. Here are three more…

Harness an on-street fleet

Enterprise Car Club now has vehicles on the streets of 30 UK cities. With a business account, your staff can use this network as and when they need – helping to ensure they are always in a modern, well-maintained vehicle when they’re traveling on work time.

Mix and match with your own dedicated and on-street resources

Some of the organisations we work with need the guaranteed availability of dedicated car club vehicles, but want to use our on-street, public vehicles too. One great reason for this is greener onward travel. For example, your sustainability policy may dictate train travel for journeys over a certain mileage – but it’s unlikely the train will deliver your staff exactly where they need to be.

Shared resources

Another great example of car club-powered sustainably comes from Stockport Council. The local authority recently introduced four Enterprise Car Club vehicles – retained for the exclusive use of council employees during office hours, but available to local residents at all other times.

As Cllr Sheila Bailey, Stockport Council’s Cabinet Member for Communities and Housing, explained in Fleet News: “Although we are starting in a small way we anticipate that the car club will help to reduce vehicle numbers on our roads and therefore emissions. It also provides existing and potential town centre residents with access to a vehicle when they need one without the burdens of car ownership.”

Making the business case for sustainability

The potential for car club schemes to support a sustainable travel policy is clear. But there’s a powerful business case to be made too.

Staff become instantly mobile, on their own terms – 29% of managers view immediate vehicle accessibility as the main benefit of car club schemes.

Mileage becomes transparent – with Enterprise Car Club, staff simply use fuel cards kept in the vehicle to pay for the fuel they need. That means no one has to fill in or process mileage claims – or be out of pocket until the end of the month. Even better, there’s no opportunity for staff to exaggerate their costs.

Fulfilling your duty of care gets easier – because your staff are traveling in modern cars, with modern safety features. Road accidents are the biggest single cause of work-related accidental death, and the grey fleet easily is the most dangerous option for employee road travel when compared to alternatives like rental fleets and salary sacrifice schemes. (Car clubs, meanwhile, are among the safest options by far.)

How can a car club scheme help your organisation?

It’s a cliché because it’s true: every organisation is different. Yours might be based in London or in Fife. It might have large number of mobile workers in a small area, or a small team, traveling great distances every week. It might be best served by electric vehicles. Or hybrids. Or plug-in hybrids (PHEVs). Or even low-emission petrol vehicles.

Whatever your organisation’s employee travel needs, there’s a good chance a car club scheme should be a part of your CSR policy – helping you reduce your carbon footprint, and boost your green credentials. It’s just about finding the scheme that’s the perfect fit.

If you would like expert advice, we’ve been doing this longer than anyone else. Just get in touch –we’ll work with you to assess your needs, and create a tailored recommendation.