Aylesbury Vale District Council (AVDC) has saved £90,000 and halved emissions in the first year of introducing its new travel policy.

The policy was implemented at the end of 2014 and was created in conjunction with Enterprise to bring the council in line with the sharing economy and the latest cost-saving technology.

The new policy reviewed all aspects of employee mobility and was supported with new travel options to enable employees to find an alternative to reclaiming mileage recharge on a private vehicle.

Eight on-site hourly rental pool cars sourced through Enterprise Car Club were provided for employees making short journeys, along with Enterprise daily hire cars for longer journeys. These have successfully replaced the grey fleet as a less expensive and more environmentally-friendly option.

The policy was created after Enterprise analysed the council’s usage data and was able to segment its employees’ business trips by cost-efficiency, highlighting where hourly rental and daily rental would be most effective. For example, by restricting daily rental to those with journeys of more than 75 miles or eight hours, it has ensured its low-emission car club vehicles are used more regularly.

The travel policy was changed to focus on safety, which is essential for the council’s duty of care responsibilities. Council staff members still using their own vehicles for work first complete a tick box form checking several aspects of vehicle and driver maintenance such as safety, insurance, driving licence, health and fitness and vehicle condition.

Alan Asbury, sustainability and energy manager at AVDC, said: “Our new travel policy was based on an in-depth understanding of how our drivers behaved and their needs in terms of mobility. Enterprise helped us analyse where, how often and why staff were travelling, which was vital if we wanted them to do it more efficiently.

“Using a car club has helped us save tens of thousands of pounds, and Enterprise also helped us work with our employees to understand the aims of the programme and demonstrate what we were trying to achieve. It has been highly successful and we’ve now been invited to speak with other public and private sector organisations to show them what we did and how we did it.”

Adrian Bewley, director of business rental UK and Ireland at Enterprise Rent-A-Car, added: “The success of the programme is due to the fact it was based on an analysis of driver behaviours and journeys. Data is the most important tool in creating a better travel policy and changing how employees think about driving.” 

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