By Jon Lawes, managing director, MHC Mobility

Jon Lawes, managing director, MHC Mobility

Corporate fleets are on a decarbonisation journey, transitioning away from internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles towards electric vehicles (EVs). This is aligned to the EU’s transition goals, as the bloc seeks to phase out new ICE vehicles beyond 2035.

The policy continues to rattle cages among member states. German policymakers led the charge lobbying for an alternative fuels loophole, while Poland has even threatened to appeal the ban. The direction of travel though is clear and corporates have generally followed suit with commitments and deadlines for greening their fleets.

But having a long-term EV strategy is only part of the solution. As much as a full EV fleet is the end goal, millions of ICEs will remain within the fleet mix during the interim. It’s not enough to sign a pledge on achieving carbon neutrality in the future, but ignore the emissions of ICE vehicles in the meantime.

Transition inertia is a real threat and businesses must still reduce consumption and emissions here and now. Thankfully, there are many solutions fleets can put into action.

Measure it, manage it

The most important first step is to measure current CO2 emissions. If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.
However, studies have found only a third of companies are proactively monitoring the emissions created by their fleets, and just under a fifth have no knowledge of them at all*. To put this in context, the rise of leasing means private vehicle ownership has declined comfortably below 50% across Europe.

This leaves a significant portion of vehicles in the hands of leasing and fleet management firms where monitoring is not taking place. These figures are not good enough and the industry must show improvements.

Driver behaviour

Next, we often underestimate the impact of driver behaviour on the total costs of a fleet, yet arguably it has the single largest influence on CO2 emissions.

Teaching, incentivising, and monitoring for efficient driving will be essential. It is common to see fuel savings of 10%, not to mention insurance savings. For example, drivers should be encouraged to slow down. It might feel counterintuitive but reducing speeds by 8-10kmh improves fuel economy by up to 14%.

Fleets should also be tapping the benefits of a data-led strategy. Vehicle data provides operators with the information required to make more confident decisions based on each vehicle’s individual driving patterns. This is where intelligent software and telematics come into play, as such solutions help make sure all that investment in training is put into practice. There is even an opportunity to gamify telematics data, producing league tables and incentivising drivers in the process.

As fleets accelerate towards electric alternatives, telematics will become one of the most important areas within lifecycle planning, and fundamental to implementing a decarbonisation strategy without impacting business continuity.

Trouble-shooting ICE emissions

Once standard business fleets have better visibility of their own impact, companies must also challenge unnecessary journeys and the need for travel.

However, for mission-critical fleets, operators can still ensure vehicle size is appropriate for the task, and that the payload is checked with unnecessary items removed. Rightsizing vehicles is paramount considering every additional 45kg in a vehicle stands to reduce fuel economy by up to 2%.

Operators also need to optimise route management. Vehicles are more fuel efficient and produce less CO2 in free-flowing traffic. It’s important to look not just at the shortest route, but also routes and times of days with the least congestion.

There is also a difference of around 6% in fuel consumption between the lowest- and highest-grade tyres. This means a ‘cheap tyre’ policy is likely to cost more, and drivers should regularly check tyre pressures, as underinflation creates more resistance and more work for engines.

Ultimately there’s no getting away from an effective and comprehensive maintenance programme to ensure vehicles do run more efficiently.

Decarbonisation now, not tomorrow

There are still several years ahead before most fleets’ carbon neutrality deadlines kick in, during which time opportunities to reduce CO2 emissions and improve efficiencies could be missed – even before operators are further down the road on their electrification journey.

Future commitments are not a silver bullet for the climate crisis. Businesses are making good progress with their fleets, but the time for decarbonisation is now, not tomorrow. Fleet managers cannot afford to be complacent.

*Statistics sourced from: European Fleet Emission Monitor: Report | Alphabet.com