Scottish Borders Council has seen a reduction in grey fleet costs and CO2 after deploying a fully managed fleet of low-emission vehicles from E-Car Club.
Providing a replacement to the council’s former pool fleet, the 55-car scheme has been deployed following a pilot project with 15 vehicles, and comprises a mix of hybrid hatchbacks and 4x4s, located at eight different sites to cater to the mobility demands of various council departments.
In the first six months of operation, more than 6,500 bookings were taken by Ubeeqo – part of the Ubeeqo car sharing service from Europcar Mobility Group – through a bespoke automated booking system, with the cars collectively travelling more than 290,000 miles.
The CO2 savings compared to the previous pool fleet, which had comprised a variety of different vehicles, equate to planting 4,800 trees.
The service is also being used to provide an 18-vehicle low-emission car club scheme for local residents to use out of hours.
“The E-Car scheme at Scottish Borders Council has been a success in more ways than we had anticipated,” said Patrick Cresswell, managing director, Ubeeqo UK. “Not only have we been able to help Scottish Borders Council drive down business mileage expenses, but the simple switch to our hybrid vehicles has made a notable positive impact on the council’s overall carbon footprint.
“With the average vehicle emitting about 4.6 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, switching to low-emission share fleets is an easy way for businesses to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.”
