Driving greener fleets forward
June 23rd 2008

Cutting down on fleet fuel use is a sure way to boost your bottom line. SAFED (Safe And Fuel Efficient Driving) for Vans is a Department for Transport funded driver development programme. It is saving Rentokil Initial 212,000 litres of fuel, and 560 tonnes of CO2 per year

Not a day goes by when we don’t hear about the rising cost of fuel, the rising cost of owning a vehicle that emits too much CO2 and how this impacts on our rapidly changing climate. Recently we have heard about the impending changes to the vehicle duty system that applies charges on emissions retrospectively to vehicles bought from 2001 onwards. And what about the business impacts of the Corporate Manslaughter Act, which came into force in April this year?

Although all of this is no great surprise, for any business it isn’t welcome news. But there are ways that a business can mitigate these impacts. Driver training is featuring high on the business agenda; not only can it help keep staff motivated but also it can have a positive impact on safety, the cost of fuel and the CO2 emissions of the fleet.

SAFED (Safe And Fuel Efficient Driving) for Vans is a Department for Transport funded driver development programme that is designed as a single day course aimed at improving the safe and fuel-efficient driving techniques of LCV drivers. The pilot programme of 2006 trained 7500 drivers and the results were impressive. The pilot showed that on average 16 per cent savings in MPG could be saved. This equates to nearly £500 per driver per year and potentially over 9000 tonnes of CO2. All this can be achieved without increasing journey times.

Drivers are trained in pairs. The day begins with a two hour introductory session followed by a one hour driver assessment.

The drivers are then de-briefed and given a demonstration to show the benefits of any advanced driving techniques. Each driver is given a vehicle and road craft instruction, which also covers parking and manoeuvring before a final assessment drive. Each driver is assessed against 18 elements of safe and fuel-efficient driving and two major indicators of fuel economy and gear changes. Drivers are also required to sit a knowledge quiz based on the Highway Code.

Two businesses that have benefited from SAFED for Vans are Rentokil Initial UK and Cottsway Housing in Oxfordshire. Rentokil had 280 LCVs with a combined annual mileage of 7million. With SAFED training it was able to see potential savings that equated to annual MPG improvements of 13 per cent per driver, a total annual fuel saving of 212,000litres and a huge reduction on CO2 emissions of 560 tonnes.

At the other end of the scale, Cottsway had 28 LCVs doing a total annual mileage of 280,000. After undertaking SAFED Cottsway was able to see potential annual savings in MPG of a massive 27 per cent and total annual fuel saving of over 12,000litres. The firm’s CO2 savings were calculated at 32tonnes.

Both companies saw benefits relating to improved environmental performance and increased fuel economy. What they also saw was that SAFED techniques reduced vehicle wear and tear, reduced accident levels and driver fatigue and improved driver skill and professionalism.

“With environmental and health and safety performance being top of the company agenda, the SAFED for Vans scheme was seen as one way that our drivers could assist us reach targets in these areas,” says Colin Blake, Fleet Manager at Rentokil Initial UK. “In combination with our fuel monitoring system we anticipate long term fuel and accident savings”