Incorporating green fleet initiatives is something that should be on the radar of anyone who manages a sizable fleet of commercial vehicles. But it can be difficult to determine the best way of building a green fleet. With sustainability now at the heart of many organisations’ strategic planning, moving quickly to reap the benefits is vitally important.
Read on to learn why you should be prioritising the development of a green fleet, and how you can go about making it a reality.
What is a green fleet?
Green fleets are quite simply fleets of vehicles that have been built with the intention of lessening their impact on the environment - in particular reducing CO2 emissions. But bringing down carbon emissions is only one part of any comprehensive green fleet initiative - with a reduction in wastage of all kinds, as well as fuel consumption, also highly important.
A more sustainable fleet is not just a ‘nice-to-have’ - it’s an absolute necessity for your business, the benefits of which will only increase over the years to come. Some of the reasons you should be looking to create a green fleet include:
- Demonstrating sustainable credentials. How seriously a brand takes its responsibilities in fighting climate change is becoming an increasingly important factor for the public, the other companies you need to do business with and investors.
- Reducing fuel costs. Moving away from a fleet fully reliant on petrol - or worse yet diesel - will ultimately pay dividends for many businesses after the initial investment in electric or hybrid vehicles has been offset.
- Capitalising on government incentives. With governments keen to encourage moves towards sustainability en masse in the commercial sector, companies can take advantage of certain incentives. For instance, the UK government’s “plug-in” grants subsidise the cost of low-emission vehicles.
Strategies for building a green fleet
Creating a green fleet is a long-term process for a business. Your fleet’s green policy should be carefully planned to set you up for years to come. Here are some of the most common strategies fleet managers employ when looking to build a green fleet.
Controlling fuel consumption
The most important aspect of reducing CO2 emissions of fossil fuelled fleets is improving fuel efficiency. Achieving meaningful improvements in fuel consumption requires two things - a concerted effort to change inefficient driving habits, and the analytics capabilities to highlight the biggest areas of opportunity.
Vehicle telematics provide in-depth analysis of fuel consumption related to driving style. The insights this provides are invaluable, helping flag up vehicles which are no longer as fuel efficient as possible and therefore need replacing, as well as drivers needing help to improve their driving efficiency.
Providing training for your full team of drivers is a relatively small investment that can have a huge impact on fuel consumption. Introducing blanket policies to reduce idling and hard braking are some of the most common strategies used to correct poor fuel efficiency.
Electric and hybrid vehicles
Of course, CO2 emissions can be drastically reduced by investing in electric or hybrid vehicles. While this strategy is not suitable for every business, a growing number of fleets are incorporating electric and hybrid vehicles as they come down in price. Even replacing one or two petrol or diesel vehicles - perhaps for use on shorter journeys if most of your fleet needs to operate longer distances - can have a noticeable impact on emissions and running costs in the long term.
Before electric vehicles can become widespread in commercial fleets, costs - especially that of the battery - will need to come down further and investment in nationwide charging infrastructure is required. However, it may just make financial and environmental sense to begin incorporating electric or hybrid vehicles into your fleet right now.
Low emission vehicles
If electric or hybrid options are not viable for your fleet, then you should still be looking to build your fleet with the lowest-emission vehicles possible. This does not have to be a rapid process, but whenever it becomes necessary to replace a vehicle, emissions should be one of the key factors when identifying a replacement.
While cleaner vehicles tend to be newer, and therefore more expensive to purchase, the financial benefits over the long term will often outweigh the initial expenditure. This is because of reduced fuel usage and lower maintenance costs. Organisations can also often receive subsidies for vehicles that produce fewer emissions.
More efficient route planning
Efficiency is not only important when it comes to fuel consumption, but for route planning as well. The more wasted miles per journey and the more unnecessary journeys in general, the greater your fleet’s overall environmental impact.
Route optimisation and planning software can transform the way you manage your fleet. This kind of software factors in all available information to create schedules that reduce emissions and save businesses money. The result is lower mileage, and sometimes even fewer journeys required. You may even find that these efficiency savings allow you to trim the size of your fleet.
Incorporating less wasteful washing
It’s not just the driver behaviour, route planning or the vehicles themselves that play into building a green fleet - maintenance also plays a big role. One area where wastage can be particularly high is when it comes to the wash process - with water and electricity frequently used inefficiently.
The most advanced wash systems on the market are able to vastly reduce wastage and pollution by incorporating water recycling technology. Up to 95% of the water used in a standard vehicle wash system can be recycled, meaning there are huge environmental and financial upsides to prioritising water recycling.
At Wilcomatic, our specialist water recycling systems are designed and manufactured by our team of experienced UK engineers - who are experts in reducing wastage in vehicle wash systems. Our systems incorporate several types of technology to achieve this goal for our customers, including:
- Rainwater harvesting
- Chemical/ biological water reclamation
- Partial/ total water reclamation
- Reverse osmosis rinsing
With over 50 years experience in delivering the very best vehicle wash systems for commercial fleets, we will design, build and implement a bespoke solution that suits the needs of your fleet perfectly. To learn more about how Wilcomatic can help your fleet achieve greener, more cost-effective washing, contact our team today.
