Top national environmental awards won by government transport agency GCDA
29 September 2008
THE AGENCY which keeps Britain’s government on the road has been named 2008's 'Public Sector Fleet of the Year' in the prestigious annual GreenFleet environmental awards.
Ben Davis, fleet manager of the Government Car and Despatch Agency (GCDA), also collected the award for Public Sector Fleet Manager of the Year at the ninth annual award ceremony, hosted by Richmond Council and held at Twickenham Stadium last week.
This was only the second year that the Agency had entered the awards, and GCDA Chief Executive Roy Burke said yesterday that he was delighted by his team's outstanding success.
"We were runners-up last year, our first attempt, and that was certainly a wonderful achievement – but to be outright winners in our category this year is recognition of the significant changes the Agency has brought about during the past two years, particularly in reducing the environmental impact of our vehicles," said Mr Burke.
"This is well-earned recognition for the hard work of Ben Davis and all the Agency's staff, from the offices to the workshops. Like the GreenFleet award judges, I am very impressed by what they have achieved."
The GreenFleet awards are judged by a panel of experts from the Institute of Car Fleet Management, the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership and GreenFleet magazine, and recognise the efforts of transport providers across the UK to cut fuel consumption and carbon emissions. This year the awards attracted a record number of entries.
In just over three years 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 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.
Award-winning fleet manager Ben Davis 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. "
