I have been in this industry for 31 years and cannot recall a public sector austerity drive like this. Staff mobility costs a great deal and this is under scrutiny like never before.

There are many things a public sector fleet manager can do to reduce costs without impacting normal activities.

As a first step I would introduce rules to be followed by staff before every journey.

I’m a big fan of the system operated by the Environment Agency for its own employees.

Staff must consider whether the journey is necessary; whether it could be replaced with video-conferencing; whether there is a viable public transport option; whether a pool car is available, whether a lease car is available (including a colleague’s car) or whether a hire car is available.

If there is no alternative, the final option is to allow an employee to use their own car and reclaim a mileage allowance. This hierarchy was originally designed to help the Agency reduce its carbon footprint, but in most cases it will deliver real cost savings too.

Next, I would look at how vehicles are selected and financed. By choosing lease cars carefully, real savings can be made. Two very similar models can have widely differing lease costs.

A few public sector bodies have considered moving back to grey fleet cars because they believe this will deliver some savings, but there are major duty-of-care issues with this option.

Salary sacrifice schemes now offer an interesting cost-reduction option that nicely bridges the gap between a lease car and a grey fleet car.

Another way to reduce costs is to look at the allowances that are being paid to employees to drive their own cars.

Many employees make tax-free profits by driving their very old (and unreliable) grey fleet cars and receiving mileage allowances that are simply too high.

If I were a public sector fleet manager those are the areas I’d look at first: is the journey necessary, is the right vehicle being leased, would a salary sacrifice scheme work and are grey fleet mileage allowances too high?

Author: Prof Colin Tourick, fleet management consultant