For the UK’s largest mini-cab company, being ‘green’ is not just about cars, but is an integrated part of the company ethos that filters down all the way from the board to the account managers and drivers.

This year’s Green Fleet of the Year winner believes it has to take responsibility for tackling environmental issues and has invested millions while taking a lead on new initiatives and technologies to help drive the green agenda.

And it shows – in terms of air pollution, the benchmark Addison Lee car, a Ford Galaxy, emits 154g/km of CO2, a third less than a traditional London black cab (233g/km).

Lee Wickens, CSR and quality manager at Addison Lee, believes companies have a responsibility to the environment and more should be done to encourage greener technologies.

“Communication and consultation is key to driving the environment forwards. Without telling people that there is a problem we cannot work together to put it right,”he says.

As well as continuing to reduce the company’s environmental impact, Addison Lee is also working with a number of organisations to help improve air quality and overall pollution in and around London.

Despite the company’s growth over the past 12 months and the fleet increasing to 4,500 vehicles, its targeted 10% CO2 reduction per journey has still been reached, a stand-out achievement.

Fleet News: There are many initiatives Addison Lee that has been involved in – is there a point when you run out of things you can do?

Lee Wickens: In the old days all we were talking about was carbon offsetting. We thought, like many companies, that we were doing good for the environment. Then last year we took a shift on view.

We offset years ago and we don’t really believe in it now so we decided to concentrate on other areas like nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen oxide, particulate matters and tyre particles. We needed to focus on all this other pollution we were putting out there.

At the moment, we are about 99.9% fully recycled, which is good, but we still have around 600 tons of waste each year which we want to get rid of.

I know it is impossible to have zero waste but it is always going to be our aim. While we have waste and produce co2 emissions, we still have work to do.

 

FN: You are heavily involved in Change London – what are the key benefits to the organisation?

LW: Change London is very exciting. What they do is called a mitigation scheme where you pay so much for carbon, PM10 and NOx and all the money goes into local area initiatives to improve levels of pollution in London.

Change London was launched in November last year and I volunteer for them. We wanted to give back to the community and clients and this is the perfect way to do it.

Part of that money goes into educating SMEs on how to save money and carbon.

We are lucky because we are a big business and can afford to have a CSR manager who can do all of this stuff but smaller firms cannot afford it, so what better way to reduce pollution then to help these smaller companies that are hard to reach?

FN: What advice would you give SMEs to get them started on becoming ‘greener’?

LW: It’s about behavioural change and changing perception.

Initiatives work and it doesn’t have to be about money – there are all sorts of things that companies can do and it is all around behavioural change, getting the drivers to think differently about how they treat and drive the vehicles. 

Sharing with other companies is equally important and showing how this can be done.

FN: Being more environmental, in some cases, comes at a cost. Have you found being ‘green’ more expensive?

LW: No, absolutely not. If you look at other companies, they tend to have a separate division dedicated to being green. From Addison Lee’s point of view, it’s integrated, it’s part of our day-to-day business.

We have a responsibility to our clients and the health of London and it is effort more than cost that is required and you’re only going to make that effort if it is part of your business.

A key area for us is employee engagement, spreading the word down to the employees and getting them to change at home, spreading the burden of pollution.

FN: What is your opinion on the emerging technologies for the transport industry? Are there any in particular that you think will be successful?

LW: There is so much technology out there and we are always putting ourselves forwards for testing these products. Next year we are looking at taking some wireless cabs to trial along with the wireless charging pads.

We need to support these types of initiatives as a mini-cab industry because if we don’t how else will technology move forwards?

Addison Lee is more than happy to be a guinea pig for all new technology – we can put miles on a car and give the products a thorough testing.

FN: What is the biggest challenge for driving greener technologies forwards at Addison Lee?

LW: The biggest challenge at the moment is economics.Can we buy a vehicle that runs the same as a Galaxy, that is as easy to maintain, reliable and safe and costs relatively the same, but with greener technology?

At the moment, the answer is no and the best thing for us is the Galaxy. The problem of fleet choice comes down to all these elements.

FN: You currently run a three-year replacement cycle – are there any plans to extend this further as vehicles have become more reliable?

LW: We have to keep it at three years, mainly because we are a premium mini-cab company. You don’t want a five-year-old vehicle turning up to pick up a customer and they don’t expect that.

Also, the amount of miles we put on the vehicle over a three-year period is substantial – our cars can do 1,000 miles a week and they are serviced every five weeks.

The key thing for us is that we cannot have that vehicle breakdown – we are a 24/7 business and we have to be fully operational all of the time.

I know we have topped 25,000 journeys in one day in the London area alone.  We average 60 million miles in a year, which is a huge amount, and reliability is key.
 

Addison Lee’s clear commitment to the environment made them a stand-out winner for the Green Fleet of the Year award.

The company continues to reduce emissions year on year and introduce innovative new technologies that not only reduce the company’s carbon footprint but drive forwards overall efficiency.

Looking forward 15 years, Wickens believes wireless technology could be the future.

“Wireless technology, when the infrastructure is there, is the future. It’s fantastic technology," adds Wickens.

“We may not have the infrastructure for the next 10-15 years but we need to start working now. As a company of our size, it’s our responsibility to be involved in these things."

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