Police fleets are usually at the forefront of adopting more efficient practices, according to Richard Flint, and he has been responsible for implementing many.

During his time as head of transport at North Yorkshire Police he has written a new policy on the use of vehicles to help reduce risk.

He has helped reduce fuel consumption – measured by a cut in the total amount in litres used – and as a result the carbon output has fallen by more than 200 tonnes a year.

Accident rates have been reduced with departmental managers given a role in following up incidents, as well as through introducing parking sensors and reversing cameras on fleet vehicles.

As well as responsibility for transport at North Yorkshire Police, he has recently stood down as chairman of the National Association of Police Fleet Managers (NAPFM), which, as a body, is responsible for around 48,000 vehicles.

It has been pivotal in sharing best practice among police forces in the UK, but as Flint now has more time to focus on local matters he reflects on some of the force’s achievements to date in improving efficiency and utilisation, as well as some of the challenges that lie ahead.

Fleet News: It seems strange that police fleets are relatively late in adopting wholelife costs as a basis for selecting vehicles. How difficult was it to introduce such a fundamental change?

Wholelife cost calculation is something of a late developer in the public sector, and police forces tend to be the leaders when it comes to adopting new practices.

Wholelife cost is something that has been used in the private sector quite a lot and we’ve adopted it in the police service for a few years now.

We introduced it in conjunction nationally with the NAPFM and the Home Office.

The majority of vehicles bought from the Home Office are on a wholelife cost basis and we’ve moved away from choosing purely on the basis of the lowest price.

Comparing wholelife cost should be the basis of choosing any asset, not just vehicles. It was something we had to make a case for with the force and the police authority.

It might involve investing more money which could seem difficult to justify in times of austerity but it results in a long-term saving.

It was accepted that wholelife costs was the best way to go, and we were fully supported in it.

 

What has been the main results of the changes you’ve made?

We’ve taken on a lot more work as a result of improved efficiency.

We became a transport department rather than just fleet because fleet has quite a narrow description. We manage grey fleet, transportation, hire cars, planes, trains and automobiles are all in our remit.

Historically in the public sector, fuel tended to be looked after by different parts of the organisation. The fleet manager wasn’t in overall control of it. But it’s more efficient if you have overall control and co-ordinate spending across all areas. We’ve even taken on management of the force’s 140 bicycles.

How can you share some of the benefits of the improvements made to efficiency with other fleets?

I’ve just handed over chairmanship of the NAPFM and one of the objectives has been to share best practice more effectively.

It includes encouraging everyone to adopt wholelife costs. If it’s taken on board at the top it will filter down to the forces and local level.

We’ve also focused on reducing risk and liability. Forces ensure they have better advice and systems in place for doing that.

One of the things we have developed in the past few years is the website providing a single web portal with information, national benchmarking, policy documents and procedures and a forum.

How has the force been able to deal with some of the challenges that have come from the need for the public sector to reduce costs and implementing so-called ‘austerity’ measures?

Reducing staff puts everything under more pressure and we always have to be careful that we do this in the right manner. We have been fortunate in that we have reduced staff only by a small amount.

We need to be aware of issues where a police officer’s time is now used for something that would have been carried out by a support officer, as police officers’ time is much more expensive.

We can’t just make cuts for the sake of it. We provide the same services we were providing before as they were all required, but we have to look at how we ensure we prioritise what we need to.

It probably isn’t as simple as having fewer vehicles, is it?

We have to look at the capital and revenue budgets. We review both and need to ensure maximum utilisation of all vehicles.

There are many different departments and types of vehicle usage.

It might appear simple to take away a vehicle, but it only saves capital. Its utilisation would be shared among other vehicles, increasing their mileage and fuel costs, so it’s only a relatively small one-off saving.

What are your views on which fuels are best suited for police vehicles?

 We got rid of all petrol vehicles for the front line operational fleet, which resulted in significant savings.

We need to be able to assess electric and hydrogen for the future.

They may be suitable for certain types of vehicles such as pool vehicles and so on.

We need to continue to monitor different fuel types. It might be possible for petrol vehicles to become suitable again, although it’s not as simple as just re-introducing them. Petrol is more difficult to store than diesel.

Drivers have to be trained to reduce the incidents of mis-fuelling if we started to have a mixed diesel and petrol fleet. Although some of the manufacturers now have devices to prevent mis-fuelling, they aren’t 100% reliable.

 

Flint says the work of his colleagues would be made a little easier if future developments were given more impetus and focus by government.

The standard vehicle specification – based around safety and compliance for all police vehicles – which would help reduce costs is something on the horizon.

He adds that it would also make things easier where police forces might outsource elements of vehicle management, ensuring any vehicles purchased meet a minimum level of specification and be fit for purpose.

With elections for police and crime commissioners this month, Flint says that many forces have certain plans on hold pending the new chiefs taking their posts and implementing their own programmes.

He also mentioned the administrative burden around the tax disc. All police vehicles are exempt from VED, but still need to display a tax disc which involves time and process for renewal.

This is a layer of bureaucracy that police forces would have a common loathing with those in the private sector.

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