If you own or manage a company vehicle fleet, you may well be at the point of considering how to decarbonise it. The impetus may come from an internal drive, or it is increasingly likely to be an external factor, such as a client or customer asking about your decarbonisation plans. If you have a large corporation as a customer, they will soon – if they don’t already – be asking for metrics from you, as they start to report on the carbon footprint of their downstream suppliers.
Economic reasons to decarbonise your fleet
There are plenty of economic factors around running company vehicles, from purchase or acquisition costs to running costs for fuel and maintenance. Often, these are wrapped up in a calculation of the total cost of ownership (TCO) over the period the vehicle is to be in the fleet.
Switching to electric vehicles will decarbonise your fleet effectively. This may be more or less simple, depending on your business. There are currently substantial tax advantages to switching company vehicles to electric, as well as OZEV grants to help with installing charging infrastructure.
Environmental reasons to decarbonise your fleet
Few dispute the negative impact of fossil fuels on the planet and on our local environments. Public awareness is increasing, and with it, consumers are increasingly considering environmental matters when deciding where to spend. If you’re not seen to be taking steps to green your business, you may come second or third in their buying decision. Driving dirty diesels will soon make your business second best in the eyes of consumers.
Another key issue is air quality. Where are your company’s deliveries heading? Are they stuck in traffic, outside schools, pumping exhaust fumes into the air that schoolchildren breathe? It’s time to do better.
If you have vehicles operating in urban environments, driving regularly into city centres, why not switch them to electric vehicles? Some city councils are now penalising drivers of older, dirtier vehicles, providing an added financial incentive to make the switch.
Broader business reasons why you might want to decarbonise your fleet
If you work for clients who are larger organisations or public bodies, you will soon feel the pressure to measure and reduce your carbon footprint – if you have not already felt that pressure. Large companies and public sector bodies are now responsible for reporting on their carbon footprint; often, this is documented in public, in an annual report.
Apart from measuring and managing their own efforts to decarbonise, these organisations will ask suppliers to report on their carbon footprint and the initiatives being taken to reduce it. This reporting will become mandatory, so you need to get used to measuring your environmental impact. And you will need to demonstrate that you have a plan to take steps to reduce it.
What about your brand? How committed is your business to being environmentally responsible? Switching your fleet to zero-emission vehicles will be seen in public as a positive step and could be a great move for your reputation. Customers will notice that if your vehicles are branded, then the broader public will take note as to whether you have gone electric or are still wedded to vehicles emitting fumes into their local environment.
How to think about your organisation’s carbon emissions
The widely used Greenhouse Gas Protocol splits emissions into three: the so-called Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions.
Scope 1 – emissions are those that are directly within your organisation’s control; these will include emissions that are a direct consequence of your activities, such as heating your premises and burning fuel in vehicles.
Scope 2 – emissions are those that are not directly within your control, but which you have a hand in creating. As an example, if you use electricity that is from solar panels, you are not creating carbon emissions, but if you use the national grid, then you are creating emissions as some of the grid’s supply uses fossil fuels.
Scope 3 – emissions are those created by your supplier or value chain. Examples of these impacts are the materials used to create the products and services that you sell. This is an area where large businesses such as supermarkets will now be asking their suppliers to report on their carbon emissions. And it is the reason why many businesses are looking to source from closer to home, or to ensure recyclable packaging is used, and so on.
How to take the first steps in switching a company vehicle fleet away from diesel and petrol
Your plans to decarbonise your transport will depend on the size and make-up of your business:
- Is your business an SME (small or medium-sized enterprise) or is it a larger company or enterprise corporation?
- Does the business directly control or manage a fleet of company cars, delivery vans or larger trucks for delivering/executing your business?
- What are the duty cycles of the different vehicles? Do they have regular delivery rounds or trips, or are they prone to handling a wide variety of tasks, potentially up and down the country, or even travelling abroad?
Analysis of the issues outlined above will enable you to think about which parts of the fleet will be easier to decarbonise, and which ones will be harder to migrate. To start on your decarbonisation journey, it will be wise to focus on those easier steps first. You might want to make a longer-term plan, so that any strategic issues can be prepared for, to tackle those parts of the task that seem harder from the current viewpoint.
If you’re not sure about how to measure some of these vital metrics, some specialists can analyse your vehicle fleet and its movements, and deliver you a report giving clarity over which vehicles are used for local trips, and which ones cover more miles, or travel more random routes. Knowledge is power – and that knowledge will help you make better-informed decisions.
Start with cars
In many cases, the first step on a company’s fleet carbonisation journey will be to switch any company cars from diesel or petrol models to electric vehicles instead. This can be managed as vehicles are returned and renewed, typically on a regular lease cycle. Issues to be considered are:
- What sort of mileage does each driver cover
- Will it be practical for them to charge their vehicle at home, or at the company premises
- If they rent their home and live in an urban setting, how can they practically plan out vehicle charging
Other considerations include:
- The tax implications of switching to an electric vehicle, both for the company and for the employee, are usually positive for both
- Whether a salary sacrifice scheme would be worthwhile, to encourage more employees to choose an electric car
The UK’s electric vehicle charging infrastructure is advancing month on month, with more and more people using an EV as their daily driver. So this is a segment where you will not worry about being a trailblazer – you can expect most drivers to be comfortable switching to an electric car.
At The Full EV, we regularly install EV chargers for companies that are switching staff to company cars. Some organisations make a commitment to install home chargers for staff, to ease the transition to fully electric driving. Others will install workplace chargers, suitable for use by both company vehicle drivers and staff who opt to buy their own EVs. Introducing a salary sacrifice scheme is another way to encourage staff to make the switch, as it is a highly tax-efficient way to support them in leasing a new electric vehicle.
Consider your commercials
If you have a fleet of light commercial vehicles, these will be the next step in your fleet decarbonisation plans. The UK market is seeing a growing variety of light goods vehicles, or vans, available as fully electric vehicles. Many vehicles are used for fixed delivery rounds, stopping many times a day and do not cover a substantial mileage, and these can be switched relatively easily to electric. Longer distance use cases may require more planning.
Heavier trucks, too, are now starting the switch to electric. With European truck drivers required to have regular driving breaks, it will be a case of ensuring that top-up EV charging is available at locations where drivers need to stop for 45 minutes. Already, organisations such as Gridserve, BP Pulse and Moto are collaborating together and opening suitable electric truck charging stations at dedicated truck driver rest areas.
For advice on where to start with your decarbonisation journey, contact The Full EV today, and make a start.
