SUFFOLK Fire and Rescue Service has become the first fleet of its kind to achieve a four-star rating in the Energy Saving Trust’s (EST) Transport Energy Best Practice Motorvate programme.

It recognises the ‘significant improvements’ the service has made in reducing carbon dioxide emissions from its fleet and reducing fuel consumption.

Motorvate is a five-star certification programme designed to provide its members with a structured plan to help monitor the environmental performance of their fleets.

Members of Motorvate commit to achieving a 12% reduction in fuel use, which includes a 3% reduction in mileage over a three-year period.

Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service has seen its workload increase by almost 2,500 safety inspections, visits and call-outs. Despite this, its overall fleet mileage has increased by just 7%.

More importantly, its fleet CO2 emissions have only increased by 2%.

Philip Dillon, fleet engineer for the service, said: ‘We started out with a strong focus on the efficiency and environmental performance of our whole fleet and our workload has increased significantly over the past months, which has made the Motorvate targets that bit more challenging to achieve.

‘However, the programme has provided us with invaluable objectives and professional support, which has helped us to further reduce fleet operating costs and minimise the environmental impact of our fleet operations.

‘We are determined to continue working with Motorvate experts to make progress towards gaining our fifth star.’