Managerial support

The majority (57%) of respondents say senior managers are leading by example on the green agenda, in line with previous Fleet News green surveys.

At some companies, senior management adhere to CO2 emission caps.

They also appear willing to try out alternatively-fuelled vehicles, with some fleet managers commenting that they have trialled electric vehicles.

At one company, the director has a hybrid car. At another organisation, directors “operate the lowest CO2 vehicles on the fleet”.

But for some companies senior managers still present a challenge.

“Their combined CO2 figures compares to a small country,” one respondent says.

Another comments: “They don’t all drive the most fuel-efficient vehicles so until they lead by example it will always be harder to change the behaviour of the other drivers.”

“They support what is being done, but only by virtue of not blocking my recommendations,” another adds.

Grey fleet CO2 emissions is an area where fleet managers appear to need more support, with 79% not tracking the emissions of the grey fleet and 77% not taking action to cut grey fleet emissions.

“I’m not allowed a say in this policy,” one fleet manager complains.

Actions taken by the minority include: banning the grey fleet entirely, encouraging drivers to take company cars (for example, by including attractive options such as sat-nav and cruise control as standard), encouraging the use of alternatives such as public transport and tele/video-conferencing, and capping emissions.

Another area that needs addressing is air quality.

A number of fleet operators say particulate and NOx levels are the greatest issue, not CO2 emissions.

A total of 130 fleets took part in the Fleet News green survey, with an almost equal split (56/44) between the private and public sectors.

The majority of respondents operate 50-250 vehicles, mainly cars.

Fleet operators look beyond diesel

Fleet operators are now more willing to consider petrol cars rather than automatically plumping for diesel.

Around half (51%) of respondents will consider petrol engines in the light of them becoming more efficient.

And they are not only considering small-engined petrol cars. Nearly a third (32%) are willing to consider all engine sizes.

Simon Graham, environmental strategist at the Commercial Group, says: “There are major improvements in spark ignition engines coming through which mean that the environmental and economic benefits of diesel over petrol are less clear.”

However, fleets are unlikely to become mainly petrol.

Only 7% say they will think about ‘a complete strategic shift to mainly petrol’.

Gary Black, group fleet manager at Inspired Gaming, would consider a switch to mainly petrol – provided contract hire costs and wholelife costs added up.

“We operate diesel cars only because of the economics,” he says.

“If fuel prices reach a point where diesel is no longer viable I would consider switching.

“My concern would be mileage.

“I know our diesel engines can do 200,000 miles but I don’t have historic data for petrol engines.”

Graham Hine, from the University of Warwick, says the solution could be to use a combination of fuels.

Of the alternatives to petrol and diesel – such as hybrid, electric, biofuel, LPG and CNG – fleets operate hybrids in the greatest numbers.

Several have trialled electric, biofuel and LPG but are ‘not operating’ them at the moment.

Over the next five years diesel-electric hybrid is still the favoured alternative, followed by petrol-electric – echoing last year’s green survey results.

Tim Muir, at ECG Facilities Services, believes government could do more.

“There is no hydrogen network, charging points are far too thin on the ground, the road infrastructure is a mess, fuel duty is prohibitive to business growth and manufacturers are not given enough incentives to develop and introduce alternative fuelled vehicles,” he says.