Report highlights fleet managers' impact on emissions

A report published by CE Delft shows that fleet managers have the ability to greatly reduce Europe’s CO2 emissions through available efficiency measures and clean technologies.

Statistics in the report ‘Saving fuel, saving costs’ show that transport is responsible for  nearly a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions, with road transport accounting for 72-81 per cent of that. 45 per cent of road transport green house gas emissions in the European Union (EU) come from company fleets, which produce 380 Mt CO2e each year.

In 2012, fleets in the EU burnt 123 billion litres of fuel, which cost a total of €200 billion and made up 32 per cent of the total cost of feet operation. With fleet operators being responsible for 50 per cent of new car purchases in the EU, CE Delft suggest fleet managers could save €28 billion a year through a variety of approaches, such as: eco-driving, including training about on road behaviour and fuel saving techniques, which could cut costs by 20 per cent; retro-fitting, adding aerodynamic features and ensuring tyres are of good quality; and switching from internal combustion engines to alternatives such as electric vehicles and hybrids.

Greenpeace Senior Climate Campaigner Barbara Stoll said: “Fleet managers have a surprising amount of power over all of our futures, and with the rapid progress being made in clean tech, they can use that power for good, and on a grand scale. Hopefully the enormous potential cost savings will help - instead of asking for sacrifices, we’re just asking them to sacrifice a bit less to oil companies.”

Andy Eastlake, managing director of the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership (LowCVP) welcomed the report saying: “In the UK, 90 per cent of new vans and over half of all new cars were bought by companies in 2014. Combine this with the fact that, on average, company cars travel more than twice the miles of private cars and it’s clear that the fleet sector is responsible for most of road transport’s impact on climate change.

“Greenpeace’s report highlights the wide range of technical and operational opportunities for businesses to improve both their carbon footprint as well as their ‘bottom line’.”

Read the report