IMPLEMENTING a car CLUB

North Ayrshire Council began working with Enterprise Car Club in order to offer employees an alternative to using their own cars (the so-called grey fleet) for business travel trips. The scheme initially started with eight vehicles for council staff to use but this has now grown to a fleet of 14 cars, including three electric vehicles, after the number of users grew from 250 at the launch of the programme to more than 500 employees. The vehicles are clocking up a total of around 11,000 miles a month, which the council says has reduced CO2 emissions by 37% or 9.1 tonnes per year. The club operates under flexible rules allowing employees to take cars home overnight for early morning meetings and can also be taken back to base the following morning for meetings held late in the day. Councillor Jim Montgomerie says: “We were spending around £1.2million on business miles and that simply needed to change. The scheme is about changing the mindset of our staff and making it the norm for employees to book car club vehicles for meetings. “The car pool scheme saves the council money, reduces our carbon footprint and is really positive for staff. It allows them to leave their own car at home which takes away all the hassle of traffic and parking and minimises the wear and tear on their car.”