How green is your van?

If your firm runs its own fleet of vans, I’m guessing you’ve got no idea how much carbon you emit, you’re not trialling any hybrid vehicles and you won’t be switching part of your fleet to biodiesel in the near future.

A rather negative perspective, yes. But having spent the past couple of weeks calling round contractors and manufacturers in a bid to identify a paragon of sustainability among commercial vehicle users in the construction sector, I have drawn a blank. And the manufacturers aren’t exactly falling over each other to talk about the sustainable features of their vehicles either, although there were a couple of notable exceptions.

One of the dilemmas for firms trying to make purchasing decisions on vans is that manufacturers do not publish carbon dioxide emission figures, unlike car manufacturers. ‘The reason for this is that the usage with vans depends so much more on how they are loaded,’ explains the Energy Saving Trust’s head of transport advice Nigel Underdown. ‘A van full of chrysanthemums weighs a lot less than one full of concreting gear. In the past the manufacturers have used it as an excuse’. Underdown suggests that, as a solution, vans should be tested at half load.

Most contractors contacted did not want to comment on what they were doing to make their van fleets more sustainable. However Mick Hurst, managing director of Chevron Services, which runs a fleet of 200 Astra and Ford Transit vans – as well as company cars – for Bramall Construction, was willing to give us an honest perspective on the dilemma faced by him and his peers.

Hurst explains that there is no industry or government guidance on which direction to take when it comes to adopting new fuels or technologies. So mostly it’s a case of updating models as the manufacturers produce more efficient vehicles in line with legislation and perhaps trialling alternatives such as LPG (liquefied petroleum gas), CNG (compressed natural gas) or biodiesel.

Bramall is trialling an LPG van, the Vauxhall Combo, on a contract in Manchester. But LPG, once heralded as the fuel of the future, hasn’t really taken off, according to Hurst. The government did initially offer grants towards new LPG vehicles or converting other vehicles, but these dried up in 2005, which has slowed the take-up dramatically.

Carillion is evaluating electric light commercial vehicles for urban areas, but points out its limitations. ‘The challenge is for high operational use between charging so at present only local, low payload activity can benefit,’ says Carillion Fleet Management’s head of business development David Stanley.

Peugot has an electric option for its Partner model. This vehicle can take a 500kg payload, reaches a maximum speed of 60mph and takes nine hours to fully recharge.

‘As more cities adopt a pay-as-you-drive approach and the technology and range of these types of vehicles increases, we expect to see more on the streets of major cities,’ comments Stanley. Congestion charging is driving the uptake of alternative fuels in London.

The holy grail of alternative fuels is hydrogen, but that is years off being a commercial proposition.

Hurst predicts: ‘In the future we will continue with petrol and diesel and they will become more efficient as they go along. Then it’s down to each individual business to reduce the miles people are travelling.’

It isn’t just construction companies which are grappling with this lack of direction.

A survey on company car use by the Energy Saving Trust (see below) published in June showed that just 11% of UK companies had reviewed the carbon footprint of their fleet and were taking steps to reduce it.

Underdown says that the ‘lack of direction’ argument is an excuse. ‘It’s easy to say “I have not done anything because it’s too difficult to see the way forward”. I don’t think it’s any more complex than any other business decision,’ he says, although he does add that there are some difficult soft issues to tackle, such as the connection between cars and status.

There are some paragons in the commercial vehicle field outside of construction. NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), which has a fleet of 525 vehicles, including ones over 3.5 tonnes, worked with the Energy Saving Trust to reduce its carbon footprint over a three-year period. The service, which travels more than 8m miles a year, reduced its carbon dioxide output by 12% over the three years by cutting its mileage by 18% and using 5% biodiesel across two thirds of its fleet.

For the majority of firms, however, there are some less radical first steps that can be taken. The first is to work out what your carbon emissions are now. This can be relatively straightforward if employees use fuel cards. This first step is important, says Underdown, because you can then show everybody how they’ve improved.

Other measures include training drivers so they know how to get more out of their fuel (see box below), maintaining vans properly, updating models regularly, and cutting down on the number of miles a fleet does. Firms could also consider buying satnavs to avoid wasted miles if drivers get lost.

If you’re feeling enthused and your firm runs more than 50 vehicles, the Energy Saving Trust offers a free consultancy service for companies called Greenfleet Review to help firms reduce carbon emissions. Underdown stresses that the trust’s advice will be commercially realistic. And who knows, a greener fleet could help you win the next local authority contract.