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Government Transport Agency commended by international 'green' award judges

DEPARTMENT FOR TRANSPORT News Release issued by The Government News Network on

ISSUED ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT CAR AND DESPATCH AGENCY

THE AGENCY which keeps Britain's government on the road is celebrating an outstanding performance in the first European-wide Green Fleet Awards.
The Government Car and Despatch Agency's manager Ben Davis was the only UK entrant commended by judges of the public sector European Fleet Manager of the Year award.

At the ceremony in Brussels earlier this month (June) the agency was also among seven public service organisations from across the EC whose efforts to cut both fuel consumption and CO2 emissions earned them a place among the runners-up for the prestigious title of European Public Sector Fleet of the Year.

"We have always known we had a good story to tell in the UK but it was great to see how our work to minimise our impact on the environment compared to that of our European peers," said agency fleet manager Ben Davis.

In just over three years the Government Car and Despatch Agency - GCDA - has transformed its 172-strong pool of government vehicles into one of the greenest car fleets anywhere in the UK. It has doubled the number of low-emission diesel cars it runs but, most impressively, 60 percent of its cars are now 'cleaner' hybrid/LPG models.

In January 2005, almost eight out of every 10 of its cars ran on petrol. By March this year petrol-driven cars had been cut to 16 percent of the fleet - fewer than two in ten. The average engine size of the fleet has also been reduced to 1741cc from 2247cc four years ago.

With the environment the biggest issue on the British Government's agenda, GCDA's programme to make its operation greener and cleaner is a carbon emissions success story.

The agency's tailpipe emissions have been cut by more than a third, from 232.03g CO2/km in 2004/5 to 145 .17g CO2/km in 2007/8. The GCDA is already within striking distance of the government's own deadline of a maximum of 130g CO2/km emissions by 2012 - it already achieves this target on all newly-purchased cars - and the Cabinet Office has cited the agency as an example of best practice.

GCDA Chief Executive Roy Burke said: "We have done a lot of work on 'greening' the fleet over the past two years and I am delighted that our achievements have been recognised in this way. We were able to take representatives to the awards ceremony from most parts of the Agency involved in this continuing project. Congratulations to all concerned - we can rightly be proud of our achievements."

Ends

The Government Car and Despatch Agency

Background information:
GCDA (the Government Car and Despatch Agency) is a not-for-profit agency staffed by security-cleared civil servants, bidding alongside commercial companies for government transport contracts. It provides a wide range of services covering every type of transport used by government and its clients, from fleet management to transport logistics for a VIP visit, and from taxi services to day-by-day chauffeur and car hire. Its Government Mail arm has its own secure courier delivery network, a mail-screening service and confidential waste disposal facilities.

Other elements of the GCDA's proactive emissions-reduction programme include:

* Offering incentives to the private offices of government departments to persuade them to switch to smaller, more environmentally friendly cars.

Since the scheme began in late 2006 there has been a 65% take up of the offer with a further 23% switching on renewal of the vehicle.

* Storing bio diesel on agency premises to make sure the greener fuel is consistently available.

* Driver training to reduce fuel consumption. Partly as a result of this, the GCDA's fuel consumption has dropped by 17 percent over the last 12 months, a carbon saving of 311 tonnes. The DfT's target for the agency was a reduction of just five percent over the same period.

* Providing an environmentally friendly taxi service for public sector clients. Public sector clients would have produced 55% more CO2 if they had used conventional black cabs.

* Offsetting all its carbon emissions through the Government Carbon Offsetting Scheme.