-By Marc Sibbald-
Deakin University has been announced as the winner of the 2015 AfMA Fleet Environment Award.
Traditionally the winner of this award has reduced their carbon footprint through a reduction in fleet size, introduced car pooling, moved to smaller vehicles or changed the behaviour of their drivers.
Deakin University has successfully looked at their overall impact on the environment and introduced a mobility solution that benefits all stakeholders. And as a leading university there are many stakeholders to consider.
Adopting some of the traditional strategies they did reduce their passenger and light commercial fleet over two years by 21.7% and reduced the total kilometres travelled per year by 17.32% which reduced C02 emissions per year by 12.78%.
The innovative solution that differentiated them from the other entrants was the inter-campus shuttle service that is combined with a park and ride service that operates from a location between two of their campuses.
It reduces the strain on car parking at each campus and replaces hundreds of cars each day with two Fuso City buses with the best possible environmental rating (JP 09 which is equivalent to Euro 6 with DPF and SCR emission technology).
In 2012 the hourly inter-campus bus service transported 22,630 passengers whilst today’s service operates at 30 minute intervals and transported 99,940 passengers in 2014.
In addition to reducing their C02 emissions the service delivers a stress-free travel experience for their students and staff that are transported in large comfortable WiFi enabled buses.
