1. The vehicle

The vehicle allocation policy is of vital importance to ensure that environmentally efficient, and hence tax efficient, vehicles obtain a place on the fleet. A carefully crafted policy can save both the employee and you significant sums of money.

For policies where there may be limited choice, it is essential to ensure efficient vehicles are provided. For policies with free vehicle choice, making the employees aware of the implications of selecting an inefficient car at an early stage in the selection process is key.

Vehicle choice

When selecting a suitable vehicle for the fleet consider:

• The promotion of low CO2 emitting vehicles - they are the most fuel efficient (regardless of fuel type) and will yield tax savings and fuel cost savings. For commercial vehicles, a sensible approach would be to carry out fuel economy trials on demonstrator vehicles prior to making any commitments to operate a specific model.
• Ensuring the vehicle is appropriate for its intended use - do not oversize or over specify a vehicle, especially for light commercial vehicles.
• Limiting car choice by CO2 emissions - CO2 capping is now quite common and can either be done across the car fleet or stepped at different job/management grades.
• Alternatively fuelled vehicles for niche roles or urban areas where cost premiums may be offset by congestion charge discounts and reduced taxation, and range or speed limitations are less of an issue.
• Electric vehicles typically have a limited range or lower speed capability compared to petrol and diesel vehicles and hence they are best suited to an urban environment.
• The operating environment of the vehicle - diesel cars are excellent for 'A' roads and motorways where particulate emissions are less of a health issue. Hybrids however are better suited to urban use as on the open road the stop/ start technology and regenerative braking systems have less fuel saving effect.
• Vehicles capable of running on bio fuels at blends above 5%. Bio fuels blends up to and including 5% can be used by any current diesel or petrol car as long as the fuel meets the European standards for diesel (BS EN590) or unleaded (BS EN228). For higher bio blends the vehicles may need modification, although some standard vehicles can run on B30, which is 30% bio diesel blend without modification or adversely affecting the manufacturer's warranty.

Vehicle usage

To ensure vehicles remain fuel efficient and environmentally effective:

• Ensure the vehicle is properly maintained - routine maintenance must be carried out to the manufacturer's specifications otherwise tailpipe emissions and fuel economy can be significantly compromised.
• Ensure drivers carry out routine vehicle checks - under-inflated tyres can increase fuel consumption considerably and are potentially dangerous.

Finally, providing an employee with cash in lieu of a company car does not excuse the organisation from its moral obligations regarding vehicle emissions. All mileage carried out on behalf of the business should be considered when assessing the organisation's environmental impact, and when targeting emissions reductions. An employee may be part of an Employee Car Ownership scheme (ECO) where a structured 'private' lease car is arranged and managed, or receive a cash allowance or ad hoc mileage payments where no controls exist over the type of vehicle used.

It is important to manage this 'grey fleet' effectively to ensure all vehicles being used for business purposes are both fit for purpose and reflect the company's environmental position. Hence best practice is to replicate much of the company car policy over to those who take a cash option or personal lease, such as no off-road vehicles or high performance sports cars.

It is also increasingly common from both an environmental and Health and Safety perspective to exercise vehicle age and mileage limitations, as older, high mileage vehicles are typically far more polluting than modern, low mileage vehicles.

2. The journey

With the UK's road network so congested, thought must be given as to whether each journey is actually necessary. Drivers need to be educated so they consider the nneed for the journey in the first place, as the greenest mile is the one not travelled. Therefore, drivers should consider:

• Is the journey necessary - or could a conference call or video conference take its place?
• Potential to use car sharing or public transport.
• Proper journey planning - using route planning software (available free on the Internet) or in-car satellite navigation systems to ensure the quickest, most direct route eliminating unnecessary mileage.
• Better planning of meetings - often clients will be happy to change a time for a meeting to allow you to have two meetings in the same region on the same day.
• Avoiding the most busy times of the day for travelling reduces time wasted in congestion.
• Alternative ways to do business - many companies have found online sales channels have reduced the need for sales teams to visit clients so regularly.

3. The driver

A key aspect to successful environmental fleet management is obtaining drivers' buy-in to the concept of green motoring.

An employee who begrudges being given an efficient and clean vehicle will manage to make it perform poorly. This was commonplace with dual fuel Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) powered vehicles that could run on both unleaded petrol and LPG. The environmental and cost benefits of these vehicles was often lost by drivers predominantly running them on unleaded fuel due to a lack of LPG refuelling sites, a dislike for the refuelling system, and driving them harshly believing they were under-powered.

Therefore get the drivers' early buy in to your environmental policy and then the objectives will be much more achievable. Ensure that:

• Employees are made aware of any financial savings available to them - low CO2 emitting cars will reduce company car tax and private fuel costs.
• Employees understand any special driving characteristics of cleaner vehicles - hybrids require a different driving style to optimise their dual power systems.
• Raise awareness of fuel efficiency gauges in cars - more cars now have instantaneous fuel economy gauges which are excellent at demonstrating real-time the significant fuel savings available from smooth driving.
• Employees understand the company's environmental objectives - such as CO2 reduction targets and reducing overall business mileage.that: