Neath Port Talbot Council is considering plans to stop employees taking fleet vehicles home in order to cut about 10% from its fuel bill.
Council officers believe there would be significant savings from creating a new parking area for about 100 of the environment directorate’s vans, lorries and specialist vehicles. Currently some 175 vehicles operate from the council’s Quays centre but do not park there at night.
Mike Roberts, head of streetcare services at the council, said annual savings of about £106,000 in fuel costs alone should be realised if vehicles, other than those on standby, were not taken home. ‘This saving equates to approximately a 10% reduction in fuel use, and does not take account of other hidden costs and potential savings.’
Employees collecting or dropping off team members on the way to and from work could be costing the authority lost time as well as fuel.
Once vehicles could be pooled at the depot, the number of vehicles owned and hired by the council could probably reduce.
Creating additional spaces at the Quays could cost £400,000. Even if that figure was not reduced during detailed design, there would be a return to the council within five years from fuel savings alone, said Roberts.
Neath Port Talbot covers 441 square km. For larger authorities, the economics of taking vehicles home could be different, suggested CSS (County Surveyors’ Society) secretary Tom McCabe. ‘If someone has to travel 40 miles into the office to pick up their vehicle and goes 25 miles back out in the same direction for their first job, there’s a lot of mileage on the road in peak hours,’ said McCabe, a Shropshire Council officer.
The key message was that councils were challenging traditional working practices for potential efficiency gains. ‘If people are using council vehicles for home-to-work journeys, councils could charge for that mileage,’ he added.
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