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A new poll of companies has found that thanks to raised public awareness, ‘Environmental Issues’ are now the biggest concern for fleet managers this year.

Out of the 800+ fleets that were surveyed, 94% list the environment as their top consideration, which was at 57% the year before.

The previous main priority was the duty of care consideration, which was at the top of the list for a number of years.

The reasons why ‘Environmental Concerns’ are now at the top of list could be due to various different reasons such as corporate responsibility and government pressure, the question is though what steps are these companies going to take to make their fleets ‘greener’?

The following suggestions have been noted:-

CO2 based Company Car Taxation – this is already in place and has already dramatically reduced emissions.

Audits – to identify whether all business journeys are necessary.

Biofuels - It is clear that 2007 will be the year in which companies across the UK will reduce the impact their fleet has on the environment.

Supermarket chains are making an effort to go green in an attempt to get their customers to do the same, last Friday (27th April) Sainsburys gave out free bag for life bags as a way to get its customers to re-use bags, instead of gaining new ones.

Sainsbury’s have also announced that they have plans to convert a fifth of their home delivery fleet to electric vehicles by 2008. They are hoping that in doing this this will save 45 tonnes of CO2 emmisions in the first year of operation.

This initiative follows a 2 year trial of the electric vehicle technology from Smith Electrical Vehicles. This is all part of Sainsbury’s customer service improvement to try and provide their customers with a more green service. The van drivers will also take away with them the plastic bags for recycling and they will use sat-navs as a way of arriving to their destination in the most efficient manner.

Tesco have also launched an online delivery service using zero emission vans, it will be running a fleet of battery powered home delivery vans that can travel for 100 miles before they need charging as well as achieving speeds of up to 50mph. These vehicles are supplied by Modec and are both quiet and pollution free – a double saving to the environment.