Norfolk County Council has launched a new car club programme for employees that it is designed to travel costs and carbon emissions.
The new scheme – which uses 10 Vauxhall Corsas and four Ford Focus Estates – is delivered by Enterprise Car Club and will see the cars being housed at the council’s headquarters in Norwich, for employees to use as pool cars which can be booked by the hour.
Council staff will also be able to hire vehicles by the day from Enterprise Rent-A-Car and also rent commercial vehicles on a long-term basis through Enterprise Flex-E-Rent.
“Enterprise helped us understand how, where, when and why our employees travel for business,” said Tracey Jessop, assistant director of community and environment services at Norfolk County Council. “Our intention, in addition to making savings on our business mileage costs, is to release pressure on parking at our main offices. Having a ‘virtual’ pool car fleet provided by Enterprise Car Club will also lead to fewer people having to drive their own cars to work, in support of our other sustainable travel initiatives.”
“Grey fleet expenditure is a significant cost for many councils and the good news is that there are now many ways to better manage business travel. The right blend of car club, daily rental and longer term rental keeps people mobile in a highly cost-effective way and analysing journey data can prove the business case,” said Adrian Bewley, director of business rental UK & Ireland at Enterprise Rent-A-Car. “Norfolk County Council is another in the growing list of public sector organisations looking to offer more sustainable travel options and take a more efficient approach to business mobility.”
“That type of forward thinking is great to see and some corporate fleets could learn from these examples. We’re also helping the council get its employees bought into the process because that will really drive its success in the future,” he added.
