– By Caroline Falls –
There are two good reasons for applying best management practice to fuels used in your fleets – save money and save the environment.
“Running a greener fleet costs less with reduced operating costs,” said Lee Sauerwald, United Communities executive manager corporate services, in an AfMA Fleet Drive magazine article, citing advantages from choosing fuel-efficient vehicles for fleets and applying for favourable loan interest rates through the Clean Energy Finance Corp’s program to incentivise fleet buyers. Adelaide-based Uniting Communities won the inaugural SA Climate Leaders Award last year after it became carbon neutral.
One way to get yourself established on the path to a greener fleet is to pick up a copy of Plant and Vehicle Management Manual published by the Institute of Public Works and Engineering Australia. It has a section titled “Fuels and Environmental Issues”, which outlines a six-step approach to managing vehicle emissions summarised below:
- Utilisation review – establish fuel consumption for each vehicle
- Establish carbon dioxide emissions – plan to reduce CO2 emissions by replacing vehicles with lowest-emission alternatives
- Consider available fuel options: research and evaluate using data on emissions of locally available fuels
- Cost the alternatives – compare whole-of-life costs of various options
- Evaluate environmental matrix — consider environmental impacts in tender evaluations and manage fleets to cut fuel consumption and emissions
- Manage fuel – record and control fuel consumption per asset and claim fuel tax credits.
If you’re not doing all these things already, it’s time to make it a top priority. Sauerwald’s United Communities claims to have saved more than $1 million by implementing its award-winning carbon-neutral plan. One of the highlights of their program was that it resulted in the company cutting fleet fuel consumption by 14 percent.
The IPWEA manual section devoted to fuels and environmental issues looks more closely at the various types of fuels widely used in Australia from a fleet management perspective, taking into account power, torque, resistance, emissions, bio-degradability, shelf-life and availability. It talks about the properties of LPG, unleaded fuels, compressed natural gas, diesel, biodiesel and ethanol blends.
The chapter is a go-to guide to a range of brands and websites that a fleet manager concerned about environmental issues will find handy. For example, it has notes about AdBlue, a German vehicle industry association trademark for a solution that lowers diesel exhaust emissions of pollution-inducing and carcinogenic nitrogen oxides.
It also talks about applicable Australian standards and Australia’s Green Vehicle Guide, which is a government-sponsored reference tool fleet managers can use to compare environmental performance of vehicles they are considering purchasing.
The Green Vehicle Guide also gets a mention in Australia’s Second Biennial Report, saying it is an initiative designed to guide vehicle buyers to make informed environmental purchases. The biennial report is prepared by the Australian Government and details the country’s progress towards meeting its commitments under the United Nations convention on climate change.
The 2015 report shows transport is the second biggest contributor to energy-related greenhouse gas emissions in Australia, after electricity. It shows transport accounts for some 22 percent of all-energy related emissions and 17 percent of all carbon emissions. Further, the transport sector’s emissions have increased the most of any group – by more than 50 percent.
Clearly, there’s scope for the fleet industry to make a change and pocket some change!
This article is part of an occasional-series based on the third edition of IPWEA’s Plant and Vehicle Management Manual. For more information about the manual click here or telephone 1300 416 745.
