Gaining a business advantage over your competitors is vital to your organisations long-term survival and to achieve this often requires a change in the management strategy to encourage smarter working and efficiency gains.

One key part of business operations where efficiency gains can be made is the business fleet. An efficient fleet, supported by an effective fleet policy will save you money, as well as providing a competitive advantage.

An effective green fleet policy can reduce your costs provided that it is supported by systems to monitor fuel consumption and mileage. Effective mileage management will bring the added benefits of better use of resources, reduced vehicle wear and tear and the potential for reduced exposure to work related risk.

However, a green fleet can only be effectively managed if it is part of existing arrangements for managing overall environmental performance. As such, organisations should ensure that their environmental systems also cover fleet management. In particular, it is worth checking if there is adequate information in the following areas:

  • Policy – does your company environmental policy include and cover green fleet management?
  • Responsibility – is there support and buy-in from senior management to the environmental policy and concept of operating a green fleet? Without top-level commitment and clearly defined responsibility the policy is likely to fail. You should also consider whether the person with responsibility for the policy has sufficient influence within the organisation to drive it forward
  • Organisation – do you have a clearly defined structure that fosters good co-operation between departments who are responsible for their own fleet?
  • Systems – do you have adequate systems in place to enable you to measure fuel consumption and mileage?
  • Monitoring – do you collect enough information to effectively monitor the performance of your fleet? In particular, do you have enough information to enable you to make informed decisions about the effectiveness of your fleet policy and quickly identify areas for change?

    If your environmental policy provides enough information to answer the above points, then you should have a good fleet policy or be in a better position to implement one. Whether you need to assess your current fleet policy or you need assistance in implementing and developing, help is at hand.

    The TransportEnergy BestPractice programme is organising three FREE seminars to help businesses answer these questions and effectively integrate their environmental and health and safety programmes with a green fleet policy.

    The events are designed specifically for organisations that manage vehicle fleets of up to 3.5 tonnes, and will be of particular relevance to fleet managers from both the public and private sector organisations.

    The events will also be of relevance to senior management, particularly finance directors and human resources who deal with staff and finance issues.

    The events will be held in London, Birmingham and Sheffield on the 1st, 21st September and 5th October respectively. By running an environmentally sensitive and health and safety conscious fleet, organisations will save money. Good for profits, good for business, good for drivers and ultimately good for the environment.

    To request further information, please send an e-mail to transport@aeat.co.uk quoting 'Putting Fleet Policy into Practice 2004' in the subject line.

    The deadline for registration is Friday, August 20, 2004

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