GCDA Success Story
11 September 2007
The GreenFleet Awards, held on 6 September at Canary Wharf, once again rewarded pioneers in environmental transport and green fleet management. A spectacular awards evening, hosted by broadcaster Quentin Willson, was attended by manufacturers, transport experts and government representatives that all champion ways to reduce the environmental impact of transport.
The Government Car and Despatch Agency were runners-up in 3 public sector categories: Public Sector Fleet Manager of the Year, Public Sector Fleet of the Year, and Public Sector Innovation.
Sponsored by Transport for London, the Public Sector Fleet of the Year Award was decided on the day, and included results from The Capital Fuel Challenge, held earlier in the year, where over 20 fleets from London (including GCDA) completed a 24 mile journey through rush hour traffic using the least amount of fuel. The GCDA came in the top 3 behind a motorbike and a police car! The top 3 were then put through to the final and invited to present their case as to why they think they are London's greenest fleet. This was judged by an expert panel, which scored each presentation, and the audience then got the chance to cast their vote electronically.
Our case was a strong one. We have a 171-strong fleet of cars as well as fleet of over 50 vans and other vehicles incurring high annual mileage (last year our fleet covered over 4 and a quarter million miles) and corresponding tailpipe emissions.
Government Cars has taken the lead within Government Departments in respect of reducing fleet CO2 emissions and has had some considerable success in ensuring the fleet is more environmentally friendly than ever before. In January 2005 the ministerial fleet was over ¾ petrol engine and only 10% hybrid/LPG vehicles. By June 2007 less than a quarter of our cars were fuelled by petrol while we had nearly 60% hybrid cars. This was helped by an innovative programme offered to departmental offices, resulting in many of our clients being persuaded to migrate from petrol cars to hybrid or bio diesel vehicles. We have massively increased the number of Toyota Prius vehicles on the ministerial fleet and we are taking delivery of Honda Civic hybrid cars now they have become available. In all we now have over 100 hybrid vehicles on our fleet.
As a result of these programmes we have reduced the fleet's average tailpipe emissions from 232.03g CO2/km in 2004/5 to 160.32g CO2/km in 2006/7. Between April and June 2007 this figure was reduced still further to 150.22 g CO2/km. That is a 35% reduction over an 18 month period. The Government is looking at the European target of ensuring all new car purchases being less than 130 g/km by 2012. For new vehicles purchased in 2006/07 our fleet average was 131 g/km.
As a result of our policy we have also managed to reduce the average engine size of the fleet from 2247cc in 2004/5 to 1770cc by June 2007.
Speaking at the Awards, Deputy Mayor of London Nicky Gavron stated: "If we all chose the least polluting vehicle in its class, this alone would reduce CO2 by as much as 30 per cent."
Contact Us
email: carsinfo@gcda.gsi.gov.uk | tel: 020 7217 3880
