The environment is still low on the priority list for global fleet decision-makers when making vehicle procurement decisions.

In fact, the environment was regarded as a low priority amongst almost all of those 2,600 fleet decision-makers surveyed by Masterlease, despite it being high on the political and business agendas around the world.

At 50%, the global survey put cost savings as the main concern for fleet managers, with risk coming in as a second priority.

The ability to keep the vehicles on the road was the third most important priority with environmental concerns coming down the list with just 6%.

“The findings show a lot of expected commonality in terms of the cost saving issue, but the low rating of environmental concerns was a surprising discovery considering the importance being placed on C02-based tax initiatives around the world,” said Nick Brownrigg, CEO of Masterlease Group.

“It is a fallacy that saving the environment and saving money are mutually exclusive.

"Reducing C02 emissions and costs are two sides of the same coin which is a message we are trying to get across to our international customers.”

With just 1% putting the environment as a priority, the Greeks and the Mexicans appear to be the least green, while at 16%, the UK fleet decision-makers come out as championing the eco cause, although this is still a relatively low priority compared to employee satisfaction, which UK managers scored at 34%.

The Italians (53%) and the Polish (33%) are more turned on to technology while the UK (2%) and the Dutch (4%) are surprisingly ‘gadget-shy’, in terms of how new technology influences their vehicle buying decisions.

The survey of found that almost 60% of Belgians put safety near the top of their list of issues concerning fleet management, while surprisingly, the Austrians (2%) and the Germans (5%) came bottom of the list of countries driven to improve risk in their fleet strategies.

The Italians also put employee satisfaction as an important issue (37%) while it figured with only 5% of those in the German sample.