Transitioning your business fleet to more sustainable vehicle choices, fuel options and driving practices won’t happen overnight. It requires planning across a range of areas in order to succeed. So, where do you start?
What’s your sustainability aim?
You can’t succeed unless you know what your aim is! So where better to start than to examine what you want to achieve as a business? Are you aiming for carbon neutrality by a certain date? Are you looking to cut your fuel use in half? Whatever the aim, you’ll have a much greater chance of success once you’ve identified a target and then stick to it.
What does your current fleet look like?
Starting or continuing a sustainability push doesn’t have to involve scrapping the entirety of your existing fleet. But it is important to look at what you have and review how it’s working for you today. How many miles are your vehicles driving a day? How much fuel are they using? How much are they carrying? How long are they on the road for? Do you need more vehicles, or could you operate with fewer? Answer these questions to help you identify your weak spots, and you’ll be well on your way to building a more sustainable fleet.
Strategise
Now, it’s time to implement a plan.
In general, sustainability measures often focus on the following:
Better route and journey -planning, smoother braking, less frequent acceleration, using cruise control, and reducing idling can all have significant impacts on fuel usage.
Transitioning some fleet vehicles to hybrid or electric vehicle could reduce fuel costs and emissions significantly. Similarly, downsizing larger/heavier vehicles to smaller/lighter ones where suitable will help to improve fuel efficiency.
If vehicles in your fleet are under-utilised, it’s worth considering alternatives to leased/owned vehicles such as vehicle sharing schemes or medium-term hires.
Whether it’s reducing the number of vehicles used per day, or swapping urban vans from diesel to electric, this is a step that needs to be done gradually. It’s also a good idea to keep a close eye on how things are going. If something isn’t working, or you aren’t seeing the sustainability results you’d expect, Alphabet is happy to help you analyse why that might be the case.
