Go green with Car-sharing

Going green is a goal of many companies and the bid to reduce your carbon footprint is starting to heavily influence the decisions of fleet managers. One such decision can include the adoption of corporate car-sharing schemes with the aim of reducing travel costs, cutting emissions and easing pressure on the roads and parking. The goal being to reduce the number of vehicles used and maintained by employees across the board.

Many companies will choose to operate their own fleets rather than use a rental solution, however, the problem is that these fleets will often have under-utilised vehicles which are both environmentally and financially unsustainable.

Car-sharing can provide financial benefits when compared to car ownership due to a reduction in number of vehicles and maintenance and fleet insurance, in addition to increasing fleet utilisation, vehicle choice and levels of customer service.

Show your commitment to going green

In particular those organisations with commitments towards sustainability targets, college and University campuses, and public sector organisations should look to consider car sharing, particularly companies that experience dramatic boosts in recruitment and need a quick and flexible solution. Car-sharing means that vehicles within a fleet are no longer assigned to a certain individual or department full time and this sustainability commitment can positively affect costs including fleet insurance.

Often car-sharing across a business and departments means that employees can benefit from greater flexibility and a choice of vehicle types for different situations. Ultimately however, the most efficient and flexible fleets will comprise of a mix of company-provided vehicles, a reimbursement programme, rental vehicles and car-sharing services.

How to make car-sharing work for your business

Car-sharing via a service provider will often mean access to the latest and most environmentally-friendly vehicles. This new technology has its own cost benefits such as manufacturer maintenance and enhanced mpg.

For car sharing to work within the confines of an organisation the vehicles need to be kept in close proximity and at a location with a high headcount. An efficient booking and management system will need to be in place and ideally be online in real time to ensure such a system can work effectively.

Understanding the most efficient number of car-sharing vehicles to adopt within your fleet is important to ensure that you are not overspending on unnecessary, underutilised vehicles, but also to make sure that you are meeting demand and customer service standards.

Perhaps on occasions a last minute rental vehicle can be relied upon to fill the gap if it is not a regular requirement. If a car-sharing scheme is allowing you to access a vehicle whenever you need it then perhaps the pool is too big? Remember, specialist vehicles can often be shared across departments rather than remaining under-utilised so don’t limit your pool.