More employers are moving to environmentally-friendly company car schemes, including Morrison, which is increasing the choice of green models, and Xerox, which is matching up staff who travel on the same routes to lift share.
Support services group Morrison intends to broaden the choice of manufacturers in its contract hire scheme to include hybrid cars. Currently, its 700 contract hire cars are provided by Ford and Vauxhall.
The company is also encouraging staff who take a cash allowance to move to a more structured employee car ownership plan (ecop) that restricts choice to cars with lower CO2 emissions by the end of the summer. It is expected that this will result in an increase in the number of green cars in the fleet.
Tony Raymond, fleet and commercial manager, said: "We intend to ensure our policies for both company car and cash for car drivers are linked to the environment." The new schemes will be provided by Arval.
Xerox, meanwhile, is encouraging staff to lift share as part of measures designed to help cut its carbon footprint by 10% by 2012.
Staff can log on to a dedicated website that matches up those travelling in the same direction. Val South, fleet manager, said: "Staff register their journeys on a website and find matches."
The printing company is also encouraging drivers to take additional measures such as regularly checking tyre pressure. Its fleet leasing provider has visited its offices to speak to drivers about the drop in fuel efficiency in cars with under inflated tyres.
Later this year, Xerox will also try to improve the miles driven per gallon in its company cars. This will be done by analysing the fuel spend of company car drivers who have fuel cards.
