Products & Services

 

Grey Fleet Management

What is Grey Fleet?

‘Grey Fleet’ refers to business miles travelled by employees in their own cars.  It is a ‘grey’ area of responsibility and accountability which is often overlooked because of its complexity.

There are approximately 43,000 lease cars in the NHS and an estimated 200,000 employee owned Grey Fleet cars.  The Grey Fleet accounts for the largest proportion of the public sector mileage and it also contributes to the largest proportion of the carbon emissions.  The average age of a lease car is under two years; the average age of a grey fleet car is over seven years.

What is our Duty of Care?

New legislation in respect to Corporate Liability makes it imperative that employers take their Duty of Care seriously. Every car, whilst it is used at work and regardless of ownership, is classed as a company car. The same Health and Safety rules that apply in an office also apply to company cars. 

Employers should keep an up-to-date register of all drivers and all cars they use at work including privately owned cars.  They should carry out a risk assessment and have procedures to ensure that each employee has proper business insurance and that their driving licence is current. There should also be guidelines governing the condition, suitability and apparent roadworthiness of private cars used on their business.

How can we save money?

The average mileage of an NHS Grey Fleet car is higher than a lease car; by removing the incentive to travel and adopting our NHS travel policy, business mileage will reduce further and savings will increase.

A typical NHS Grey Fleet driver receives 59p per mile; a lease car costs less than 40p per mile.  Therefore each driver that is transferred to a lease car will save 19p per mile.

The total annual mileage travelled on NHS business is 400 million miles per annum.  Saving 19p per mile will save £76 million a year. 

A typical Primary Care Trust with an average business mileage of 3,000 miles and 450 Grey Fleet cars will save in the region of £256,000.00 per annum.

How can we reduce our carbon footprint?

The Government has set its own target at a 15% reduction between 2006 and 2010.  The carbon footprint is a product of the mileage travelled and the CO2 emission output of the car.  Therefore, there are only two ways to meet your target; reduce miles travelled and lower the CO2 emissions. 

Transfer drivers into newer cars and the CO2 emissions will reduce.

By reviewing the travel policy and reducing the need to travel, the carbon footprint will reduce by over 20%.