Do you know how much it could be costing your business to run your company's cars in an environmentally unfriendly way? UK business could be saving a massive £2.6bn a year by driving their existing cars in a greener fashion, which works out at a saving of a £1,000 per car, per year, every year, with no initial outlay.

Research by the Energy Saving Trust has highlighted the enormous monetary savings which could be made by firms opting for greener fleets, yet 31% of companies still believe that such a switch would be too costly.

In addition to saving businesses billions of pounds each year, moving to a green fleet will positively impact upon the environment and reduce a firm's carbon footprint. Recent findings from the Energy Saving Trust have highlighted that while less than half of UK businesses have implemented an environmental policy, 58% of consumers would like to see what the UK's companies are doing to combat the problem of climate change.

Any fleet can be run in a less damaging way yet businesses are often unsure of how they can start when it comes to reducing their company cars' emissions. The issue becomes exacerbated when the company car fleet management sits outside of the traditional fleet management groups: in the HR department or with the company director's PA. Without experience and feeling that there is no support out there, those with the responsibility often put it on the ever growing ‘to-do' list, and there it stays.

However, whether company cars come through a leasing company or are company owned, there are a range of solutions that can be put in place to reduce the company cars' emissions:

• Promote cars with low CO2 emissions to reduce employee car tax and national insurance

• Evaluate alternative fuel cars to see if they might benefit your fleet

• Ensure vehicles are regularly serviced: poorly maintained vehicles have higher toxic emissions and fuel consumption

• Identify opportunities to reduce mileage by recording and analysing business travel

• Record and analyse individual fuel consumption to encourage fuel efficient driving

• Promote safe, economic and environmentally friendly driver training

• Ensure mileage reimbursement rates are environmentally sensitive and do not encourage drivers to make excessive journeys

• Provide access to websites and route planners to minimise vehicle mileage

• Promote satellite navigation and telematics to help drivers avoid congestion and use the most efficient route to reach their destination

• Review arrangements for tele/videoconferencing as an alternative to business travel

The Energy Saving Trust offers free, expert, green fleet advice to companies through its funding from the Department of Transport. For further information call the transport hotline on 0845 602 1425 or visit the website at www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/fleet

If you're serious about greening your company fleet - and with the Energy Savings Trust's latest figures indicating company cars emit about 16m tonnes of carbon dioxide every year, you should be - then data is your greatest asset.

In order to implement improvement you need to establish where your business currently stands. How much fuel does your fleet currently use? What type and how many vehicles do you operate? Where do your drivers purchase their fuel from and ultimately what level of CO2 emissions does your fleet currently emit? These statistics will give you a clearer understanding of areas which need to be focused on for improvement and what steps to take to make your fleet as green as possible without costing the earth. Importantly, it also gives you a benchmark against which to measure your progress.

Once you have established your position it then becomes more manageable to determine where you want to go as a company. How are you going to improve the business mileage of your drivers, their fuel efficiency and what vehicles you select? There is a risk on relying simply on your vehicles to achieve CO2 reductions. Vehicles will contribute, but procurement is only part of the solution. Hybrids for example, may only deliver savings on inner city travel and biofuels are still a developing technology.

There is also the grey fleet to consider. The ‘grey fleet' represents workers' own vehicles, used for business driving purposes which typically do not fall under the management of the fleet manager. As a result there is no strict system in place to monitor fuel consumption and CO2 emissions from these vehicles. Cost is often quoted as a major barrier to developing a green fleet policy, but according to the Energy Savings Trust, a company with a fleet of only 100 vehicles could save up to £90,000 a year by implementing a green fleet policy.

In the immediate term, fuel cards present the best solution to reducing CO2 and delivering costs savings. As many of you will already know, a fuel card can be supplied by a leasing provider or oil company. A fuel card is used within a business to allow drivers to purchase fuel only at the forecourts. This system removes the possibility of drivers claiming sundry items as part of a fuel purchase through typical pay and reclaim schemes.

However, more importantly, fuel cards provide valuable information which is integral to implementing and measuring an effective ‘green' fleet policy:

• Produce accurate management report

• Price per litre and miles per gallon information on individual vehicles

• Point of sale detail including volume of fuel purchased

• The data collected via a fuel card system can be used to calculate CO2 emissions produced by individual vehicles and overall fleet

• Provide accurate mileage recording facilities

Choosing the right fuel card can make a difference to your carbon footprint and monthly bottom line costs. For example, a fuel card which can be used at multiple fuel retailers including supermarkets and oil companies will be much more valuable than a limited network fuel card provider. Drivers can fill-up at more economical stations and avoid driving miles in order to purchase fuel. This impacts on fuel efficiency and reduces overall monthly fuel costs.

Moving forward, additional measures can also be taken to improve fleet efficiency. A pro-active procurement strategy which selects vehicles on their emission performance as well as sustainability and includes those opting out of the company car scheme, will provide reductions in CO2 emissions. A driver behavior policy can be implemented providing drivers with instruction on how to drive more efficiently, taking into account factors such as tyre pressure, revving and car loading. This will reduce emissions, deliver fuel efficiencies and extend the overall life of your fleet. Consequently, an enforced policy can result in decreased fuel use and reduced carbon footprint per driver.

A true green fleet will not rely on one specific factor but incorporate each of these measures. The key is to integrate a manageable green policy which covers every aspect of the company car driver and actively reinforce these policies on a regular basis to deliver on-going, sustainable improvements.

For more information see www1.arval.co.uk

For new businesses operating any number of commercial vehicles, there is unrelenting pressure to address the urgent challenges of reducing each vehicle's carbon footprint while maintaining fleet operations as cost-efficiently as possible.

By harnessing internet and mobile communications technology, advanced vehicle tracking systems are providing effective solutions to contemporary challenges. Less expensive than an investment in hybrid vehicles and more convenient than converting to LPG, telematics technology offers 24/7 visibility of your mobile workforce on the web, backed by comprehensive vehicle activity data; all accessible at the ‘click of a mouse'. The accuracy and level of detail provided creates countless opportunities for business owners/fleet managers to effect cost savings and improve their ‘green' credentials.

The award-winning Quartix live-tracking system, for example, is installed in 12,000 UK vehicles and saves each customer, on average, 50 litres of diesel per month, representing annual savings of 7.2m litres. With each litre of diesel used representing 2.7kg of CO2, subscribers are sparing the planet the effects of yearly emissions totalling around 19,440 tonnes.

Fuel economies arise through ruling out unscheduled journeys and duplication/overlap situations. Using a tracking system, it can be easier to eliminate inefficiencies, with reductions in fuel consumption and vehicle wear and tear apparent from the outset.

More fuel is saved through mobile employees' awareness of the presence of tracking technology; they are less likely to use a heavy right foot when aware that maximum speeds will show up on tracking records and tend to adopt a safer, more economic driving style.

The more comprehensive telematics solutions supply internet-enabled vehicle activity reports, featuring individual vehicle audit trails from which fleet managers can arrange timely servicing and reap the benefits of cleaner emissions, optimum fuel usage and extended vehicle lifetimes. Historical log records can be filed securely online, saving time, space and paper.

With additional benefits including accurate timesheets, reduced overtime payments, more-efficient call placing and increased fleet productivity, it's easy to see how savings of up to £2000 per vehicle, per year are attainable.

The environmentally-friendly Quartix live-tracking service requires no specialist software or equipment for use and its tracking units are fully-recyclable. For further details contact: 0870 013 6663 or visit www.quartix.net