West Yorkshire Police (WYP) is responsible for policing part of England’s largest county, covering both urban and rural areas. The force is committed to reducing its environmental impact and has worked with Energy Saving Trust on numerous occasions, most recently on a review of grey fleet.
Process
Grey fleet
To reduce staff driving their own cars for work purposes (grey fleet), WYP introduced six low emission Peugeot 208s (90g/km) as pool cars at their central HQ, and plan to make further pool cars available at each district HQ.
An enhanced finance system now also provides individual private mileage data, allowing individual carbon footprints to be calculated based on the details of an employee’s own vehicle.
The force actively promotes video conferencing and working from home. Its Green Travel Plan includes a car sharing scheme, a salary sacrifice scheme and a very popular Cycle to Work scheme run in conjunction with Halfords. Bus passes are also available for travel to meetings, and it promotes ‘Love to Ride’, a national initiative to encourage and reward cyclists (CityConnect).
Telematics
As part of WYP’s drive to reduce fuel use, mileage and emissions, optimise fleet size and better identify driving behaviour which contributes to accident rates, 700 operational vehicles have been fitted with telematics. Indicators logged include mileage, speed, over-revving, harsh braking or acceleration and engine idling.
Results
Grey fleet
In the first 12 months (May 2016 to April 2017), the six HQ pool cars saved the force over £34,000 on private mileage claims.
Telematics
Rolling-out the telematics system significantly reduced WYP’s fuel bills and carbon dioxide emissions while maximising vehicle utilisation. In particular, it enabled:
- de-fleeting of 120 vehicles because the optimum size of fleet could be determined through data on vehicle utilisation
- mileage reduction of 2.6 million miles between 2012/13 and 2016/17 due to the telematics and a smaller fleet
- savings of £382,000 on diesel costs and lower resulting carbon dioxide emissions
- 31 per cent drop in blameworthy collisions between 2011/12 and 2014/15, resulting in £34,134 of cost savings in accident repairs.
Telematics data has also facilitated decisions by senior management on other fleet improvements and enables the progress made by WYP to be shared with other UK forces, inspiring similar efforts.
The commitment of WYP to operate a cost efficient and sustainable fleet not only benefits the organisation directly but also the environment and the public they serve in West Yorkshire.
“Our telematics system informs our driver training programmes, targeting those drivers who need the most support with the right type and level of training. We also monitor mpg figures, have visibility of fuel refills, including where vehicles have refuelled. This enables us to identify those vehicles which don’t refuel at in-house locations and ensure they are utilising the cheapest forecourt suppliers.’’
Steve Thompson, head of transport, WYP