Encouraging motorists to take the plunge and go ‘Green' has been given a boost in the commercial sector by several new incentives. The plan is to encourage the UK's commercial fleets to start considering more environmentally friendly ways of doing business, including cutting carbon emissions, using safer and greener driving techniques and even changes in how insurance companies put together their van insurance policies. The policies have government backing, both morally and financially, and the industry hopes that the measures brought in could lead to cheap van insurance for those adhering to a greener way of driving.



First up is a new online tool to help drivers choose environmentally friendly vehicles by checking the CO2 emissions before they buy. The British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA) has uploaded a carbon tool onto its website that will allow van buyers to compare the emissions of a variety of vehicles. Manufacturers have agreed to release information on CO2 emissions, but as this won't happen until the end of 2009, the Association has produced its own guide to help buyers choose the greenest models.

The government is also busy putting together incentives and ideas to get van drivers to go green as well. As part of a government incentive to get drivers to switch to low emission models, the Secretary of State for Transport, Ruth Kelly, has announced an extra £1.2million to train van drivers in greener, safer driving techniques. The ‘Safe and Fuel Efficient Drivers' (SaFED) campaign aims to encourage better driving techniques that will save fuel and cut costs as well as CO2 emissions. The scheme has already had an initial investment of £2.2million and has been very popular. So far the scheme has trained nearly 7,800 drivers, resulting in an average of 16% improvement in fuel consumption, giving a potential annual fuel saving of around £3.3million and reducing CO2 emissions by 9,350 tonnes. The scheme instructs drivers on a range of techniques including fitting ‘fuel friendly tyres', monitoring driving habits or even considering changing to a hybrid vehicle.

However, what van drivers want to see are advantages in areas such as cheap van insurance and lower premiums for those making the switch. A poll by Virgin Money showed that while 41% of drivers would be happy to pay that little bit extra for an environmentally friendly vehicle, 73% said that they would want to see cuts in costs in other forms. The most obvious saving that they would be looking for is a reduction in the costs for commercial van insurance.

Commentators say that a carrot rather than a stick approach is needed to encourage people to make the change over to greener vehicles and that the insurers have an important role in that process. By offering the UK's fleets and commercial van drivers special deals on greener vehicles, they feel that more people could be persuaded to adopt greener motoring.

Commercial vehicles also now have an additional tool to assess their CO2 emissions produced by their vehicles. The free service has been named the ‘Fleet Emissions Audit' tool and allows easy access to the monitoring of each vehicle. Application is available online, and once a form is completed disclosing the amount of fuel used over a specified time, calculations can tell fleet managers how fuel efficient their vehicles really are.

With so many opportunities to change how commercial drivers approach their job and consideration for the environmental impact of the country's vans and commercial vehicles, now really is the time to start adopting a greener approach to fleet management.