The Tasmanian Government has legislated that it will aim to deliver a 60% reduction on 1990 greenhouse emissions by 2050. Within the Tasmanian public sector the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is the largest employer with over 12,000 staff, has the largest vehicle fleet and in turn is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases (41%).

Under DHHS’s Emission Reduction Plan of 2009 fleet management reviewed how they could make an impact on the CO2 emissions. A review of the DHHS car fleet was completed in early 2009. This highlighted significant operational inefficiency across the fleet including excessive business unit administration surrounding vehicle use. This showed limited ability to measure, monitor or manage vehicle use and no ability to detect under or over-utilised vehicles.

DHHS initiated a RFQ process for an online pool vehicle booking solution supplied by Smartfleet Management. DHHS and Smartfleet worked collaboratively to understand the existing adhoc systems and cultural adjustments required to transition to a disciplined pool vehicle booking system.

In 2011, following the implementation of the Smartfleet pool vehicle booking system the DHHS Vehicle Policy and DHHS Vehicle Procedure documents were revised to reflect the new method of pool car booking.

This included four distinct strategies to reduce Co2 emissions, covering reduction of fleet vehicles based on clear knowledge of fleet usage, moving to greener vehicles, reduction in non-essential vehicles and reduction in use of rental vehicles

These efforts have resulted in a total CO2 reduction of 15.06% resulting in a cost reduction of $1,439,664 in year 2011/12 and $1,933,163 in 2012/13.

AfMA commented that it congratulates the Tasmania Department of Health and Human Services on their deserved winning of the 2013 Fleet Environment Award and their continuing efforts for a more sustainable fleet.