Case study: Woking Borough Council
Policy: introduced car share
Result: cut annual grey fleet mileage by 25% (14,000)
Woking Borough Council introduced a car sharing scheme in 2010 that reduced annual grey fleet mileage by 25% and
the CO2 footprint for employee business travel by 37% (about 1.2 tonnes of CO2 per year).
The scheme (CarShare, which is run by rental provider Enterprise-Rent-A-Car) was introduced after the council decided to remove mileage reimbursement for occasional users (with a few exceptions, such as employees based outside the town centre).
The mileage allowance for essential users was also modified so they were encouraged to use either CarShare vehicles or a leased car.
David Johnson, corporate strategy manager at the council, says: “We wanted everyone to buy into the thinking behind our car sharing programme.
"We knew that mileage reimbursement was seen by many as a discretionary ‘perk’ so we brought the unions in from the beginning.
"That way they knew that we were providing alternative means of transport at no cost to employees, rather than trying to reduce benefits.
“They grasped this immediately, as well as the environmental benefits of the Enterprise cars, and this got them on board from day one.”
The council encourages employees to think about journey planning.
Rather than making several different trips spread over a week, employees organise their time to attend appointments during the period they have the CarShare vehicle booked.
Johnson says: “Enterprise CarShare has helped us change how our employees think of business trips.
“Without the perceived perk of mileage reimbursement and how it can encourage them to drive more than they need to, our employees take a more considered approach to their travel planning.
“In fact, many now see the programme as an additional staff benefit.
“We’ve been able to drastically cut down the grey fleet, reducing our costs and carbon footprint, and get employees thinking about when, why and how they travel.
“We’re driving a real cultural change.”
The programme has been so popular that the vehicles are being made available to staff and members of the public outside working hours.
Sarah Tooze is a former managing editor of sister title Smart Transport. Prior to joining Smart Transport she worked on Fleet News for more than 10 years, latterly as deputy editor, and won the ‘automotive business journalist’ award in the 2017 Newspress Awards.
Alastair.kendrick - 26/09/2013 11:41
Sorry but this article seems to over simplify the issues and gloss over the tax position. Public sector workers operate what is called the fixed profit car arrangement so they provide a list each year of the taxable element of the allowance paid which gets coded out in most instances. The question is does the AMAP rate give enough to reimburse costs incurred on business travel. This comes down to if figures are on marginal or apportioned costs. If on the latter ( which is the basis adopted by HMRC in setting the rates) then the current HMRC rates are unlikely to cover the drivers costs unless employee is driving a low emission vehicle.