Van fleet operators have called on all commercial vehicle manufacturers to publish fuel economy and emissions figures on their models to enable companies to reduce their carbon footprint.
That’s according to a survey carried out by Northgate Vehicle Hire, one of Europe’s leading light commercial vehicle rental business.
An overwhelming 80% of 501 fleet owners wanted clear data on emission and MPG on commercial vehicles.
Ironically, while the call for official data to be published underlines the environmental concerns of corporates, the same survey also revealed that more than a third of firms (36%) intended to do nothing over the next six months to go ‘green’.
However, the majority of those quizzed have either implemented a range of initiatives or plan to take action during the remainder of 2008 to reduce emissions from their fleets.
Since January 1 this year all van manufacturers must by law produce fuel economy figures and carbon dioxide emission figures for vans for the first time - but they don’t have to publish them.
Northgate Vehicle Hire managing director Phil Moorhouse said: “Fuel economy and CO2 data should be published by the van manufacturers and be available to all fleet operators. There are issues around both sets of figures being affected by whether vehicles are laden or unladen and their actual specification - factors that influence such data on commercials far more than in relation to cars. However, unless the vehicle manufacturers publish official data then more and more websites will spring up publishing their own figures that may or may not be accurate. I’m not surprised by the survey results because we are being increasingly asked by our customers to help them work out their carbon footprint and manufacturers would do the industry a huge favour by agreeing a standard for both sets of figures and publishing them.”
Simon McBride
