A UK sales company has slashed its fleet costs by embarking on a Government-backed green scheme which has dramatically cut its business mileage and CO2 emissions.

Over a three-year period, motor industry systems provider Denso Sales has cut business journeys by a total of 76,475 miles – in the first year alone, it reduced mileage by 26,000 – and reduced total CO2 emissions by 50,683kgs after implementing the Government-backed Motorvate scheme.

A spokesman at Transport-Energy, which runs the Motorvate greener fleet certification scheme, said: 'This case study shows how simple measures can have significant results both economically and environmentally.'

Denso implemented the green fleet strategy through Motorvate, which saw the company switch from petrol to diesel fuel, promote car sharing among staff and video-conferencing and introduce new methods of recording fuel data.

The spokesman added: 'Denso worked to ascertain baseline figures for the company's fuel use and mileage. This was achieved through quarterly driver declarations entered into its Roadbase Fleet Management database. From this, targets could be calculated.'

Denso's 90-vehicle fleet now includes 54 petrol, 35 diesel and one liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) vehicle after the switch from a predominantly petrol fleet.

The spokesman added: 'During the three years of the company's membership of Motorvate, a substantial change in the composition of the fleet has been seen, with a large shift from petrol to diesel.

'As a result of careful vehicle selection systems, which encourage opting for vehicles which are strong on fuel efficiency and offer low CO2 emissions, the company has seen the petrol dominant fleet of 2000 transformed to an almost balanced diesel/petrol fleet.'

Denso Sales has also promoted car sharing for staff and video-conferencing and has recently introduced a new system called PC-net, which enables employees to hold video-conferencing using their own personal computers.

The TransportEnergy spokesman said: 'With increasing pressure on the fleet industry to curb emissions, TransportEnergy Best Practice also provides relevant and up-to-date information on current issues within the industry to enable informed decision-making.'

  • For more details contact TransportEnergy on 0845 602 1425

    Achieving a greener fleet

  • Collect data on fuel use and mileage to ascertain accurate baseline figures
  • Monitor this data and identify poorly-performing vehicles
  • Use incentives/disincentives to influence vehicle choice
  • Investigate alternatives to business travel such as video conferencing and car sharing
    Source: Denso Case Study

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