An innovative car rental scheme is being hailed a success after saving thousands of pounds, driving down emissions and crucially tackling the grey fleet.

Working in partnership with Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Woking Borough Council and its energy and environmental services company Thamesway introduced a new rental package earlier this year.

The package consists of a mixture of daily rental, used for longer journeys, and an hourly rental product called WeCar created for the council and designed specifically for shorter journeys.

“We have been able to address two key issues – cost and emissions – whilst at the same time providing a flexible and easy to use travel resource,” says Ray Morgan, chief executive of Woking Borough Council.

“By adopting a blend of WeCar and daily rental we have been able to replace employees’ use of their own vehicles for council business and reduce our overall transport costs.

“Not only this, but we have also been able to do our bit for the environment as well, reducing the CO2 emissions of our business travel and contributing to our overall climate change strategy targets.”

To understand more about its employees use of cars for work, Woking Borough Council used the results of a ‘fleet health check’, carried out by the Energy Saving Trust together with the Enterprise grey fleet tool kit, to analyse the frequency, length and types of journeys made by individuals, and the amount of carbon emitted by the vehicles they used.

The council discovered that more than 30,000 miles were travelled each year by employees using their own cars leading to an annual mileage reimbursement bill of £17,778.

Many of these journeys were of short distance and duration – for example travelling to site visits and meetings within the borough or across the county.

To help the council control these costs, manage carbon emissions and fulfil its transport needs, the rental package was introduced.

The WeCar hourly rental product supplies the council with two dedicated WeCar vehicles. All council employees have the option to book one of the sub-120g/km vehicles based in one of Woking’s multi-storey car parks.

They are available for up to four hours at a time – tailor made for trips that do not necessitate a full day’s car hire. 

However, what was crucial to the scheme’s success was an internal communications programme, which explained how the system worked and the benefits it brought.

As a result, the WeCar programme has allowed the council to be able to reduce grey fleet usage significantly on short journeys, with longer journeys covered by using Enterprise daily rental vehicles.

The two WeCars have been used for an average of 145 hours per month, or about 4.5 working days each week, while mileage costs have been slashed by 29%.

“Council staff have responded positively to the new scheme,” says Lara Beattie, Woking Borough Council’s climate change officer. “The online booking system provides a convenient way to book a car in advance and means that staff can travel to work by alternative means, knowing that they can access a car for business use.”

This has resulted in a saving of 1.2 tonnes of CO₂ on business travel, while the program has also meant that the council no longer requires a pool car vehicle, saving just over £2,000 per year in leasing costs.

Rob Ingram, director of business rental at Enterprise Rent-A-Car, concludes: “A better considered travel policy can help remove cost whilst also assisting organisations in meeting some of their other targets like CO₂ reduction.”

Avoid knee-jerk reaction to cutting costs

With the scale of the spending review cuts now apparent, public sector fleets are looking for ways to cut their costs, which will inevitably increase the focus on grey fleets (Fleet News, October 28).

However, Woking Borough Council’s approach reveals how a wholesale review of how its employees travel on business has not only cut its grey fleet mileage costs by more than a quarter, it’s also been good news for the environment.

Rob Ingram, director of business rental at Enterprise Rent-A-Car, says: “We expect to see more councils seeking advice as to how to make their travel more efficient, especially in relation to reducing their grey fleet.

“However, it is important to remember that travel will still remain an essential element to the public sector in fulfilling their responsibilities. 

“Therefore, reviewing travel policies and adopting a range of alternatives to manage efficiency is a far better response than any knee-jerk cost cutting that could result in a reduction in necessary travel.”