Sustainability and Emissions

Driving a cleaner, more sustainable fleet
Adopt EVs across your fleet
Report on sustainability metrics and emissions
Reduce avoidable emissions
Prepare your organisation for the future
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Emissions Reporting

Having an accurate report on your fleet’s emissions is the first stage in building an effective sustainability strategy. Armed with this information, your organisation will be able to benchmark its progress. For organisations in New Zealand, Smartrak has a solution that automatically produces this information, presenting it in a downloadable report that meets international best-practice. By integrating with the New Zealand Transport Authority, each vehicle’s unique emissions profile is aligned with the data gathered through Smartrak telematics. This provides an accurate report on that vehicle’s emissions and the emissions of the fleet as-a-whole.
Knowing the emissions contribution of each vehicle allows organisations to prioritise vehicles with high emissions for retirement, or restrict their use. Smartrak is currently investigating how this same functionality can be extended to our Australian customers.

Zero Emission / Electric vehicles

ZEVs are an inevitable addition to fleets, so it makes sense to get ready for them. You can do this by using your telematics solution to analyse how your fleet works and to identify those vehicles and tasks that will be suitable for an EV. One of the biggest barriers to EV adoption you are likely to face centre on range anxiety. Often staff are concerned that when they’re travelling long distances they will run out of charge. While range is certainly something to consider when introducing EVs into your fleet, a trip analysis through your Smartrak solution will highlight whether it is in fact an issue. In well over 90% of cases, business trips are easily within range of an EV on full-charge.
This was a major concern for Smartrak customer Meridian Energy. But by analysing telematics data, they realised that most staff journeys were short-range. They could be easily serviced by ZEVs. This change in thinking was only possible due to the presence of a telematics solution and analysis of the data it collected. Smartrak has produced an e-Book that provides a concise introduction to adopting EVs. It covers all of the topics you will need to consider, including charging, both onsite and at home. You can download it below.

Driver behaviour

It’s a fact, good drivers burn less fuel. That’s why it’s important not to forget the role that staff play. They have a direct impact through both through the decisions they make and the way they drive their vehicles. Vehicle selection habits When it comes to culture, it’s worth training staff on your organisation’s green fleet strategy. Do they understand the organisation’s commitment to reducing emissions, and are they on board with the proposed goals? If they are, then it’s more likely that they’ll choose vehicles that support the organisation’s strategy.
Driving behaviour Employee driving habits will impact an organisation’s ability to meet sustainability targets. Accelerating too fast or driving at excessive speeds can increase a vehicle’s emissions output. Harsh acceleration and braking will also wear out vehicle components quicker, meaning vehicles will become less efficient. Unfortunately, employees won’t necessarily realise their driving habits aren’t compliant with an organisation’s green fleet strategy. That’s where a telematics solution helps. Telematics data provides Fleet Managers with the ability to analyse individual driver behaviour, identifying overspeeding, as well as harsh acceleration and braking. With the driver identification solutions available through Smartrak Fleet Managers can isolate individual behaviours and accurately attribute them to excessive fuel consumption, as well as unsafe driving. Excessive idling is another issue that can be easily addressed through telematics and accurate driver identification. A little education here will pay dividends in reducing those tailpipe emissions.

Four Fuel Use Reduction Tips

Reducing emissions isn't just about changing vehicles, it's about changing behaviour

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Real-World Success

Case study

Looking to understand how our solutions perform in the real world? We've put together a mini case study to highlight how our solutions help real-world customers. 

Customer

Meridian Energy NZ

Overview

Meridian began working with Smartrak in 2015 following the production of a business case supporting improved health and safety of their staff across their fleet, and of lone workers operating in the field.

The Issue

Following a review of Meridian’s fatal risk framework, the Corporate Safety and Health Team identified driving as one of the top 10 fatality risks within the organisation. Nick Robilliard – Procurement & Property Manager (and manager of Meridian’s vehicle fleet) has already identified vehicle GPS as a tool to manage this risk and this review provided the lever to introduce this technology across the business.

The Solution

The data challenged Meridian’s thinking. Instead of trips over long distances, much of the fleet was doing shorter trips.

Conclusion

Meridian Energy has already seen benefits across their fleet from introducing telematics
“GPS can reduce your fleet, reduce your capital, or operating costs.”

Improving Fleet Sustainability

Prioritising cleaner vehicles

One of the best ways to improve a fleet’s green credentials is by choosing vehicles that produce fewer CO2 emissions. Either by using newer vehicles with more efficient engines, moving to hybrids or going for the greenest option: EVs. However, it’s one thing for an organisation to include low-emission vehicles in the fleet, it’s another matter to get staff to use them instead of a favoured Ute or powerful saloon. If you have a large vehicle pool, how do you encourage staff to prioritise taking vehicles that produce fewer emissions? One option is education. You could take advantage of typical communication channels such as posters in staff common rooms, internal newsletters and email memos. However, the size of the organisation will determine how successful that will be. It also hinges on the fact that your information will cut through all the other noise that staff deal with, and that they’ll retain the knowledge of which vehicles they should prioritise using. The best way to make sure that vehicles with low or no emissions get used is to use a vehicle booking solution that prioritises these vehicles. Smartrak’s booking solution will do this, automatically presenting selected low-emission vehicles and only presenting less sustainable options when the low emissions vehicles are all in use. The solution can also swap to presenting a petrol or diesel vehicle when the task requires a vehicle with capabilities like towing power or 4WD.

Maintenance's impact on emissions

Servicing vehicles at regular intervals ensures that engines are running efficiently and that parts haven’t worn out, both of which can produce additional emissions. But keeping on top of servicing schedules that will probably be based on the time since the last service and the number of kilometres travelled can be an admin headache. Reminders in your Outlook calendar and spreadsheets will only get you so far. Depending on the size of your fleet, this could be a daunting challenge. A simple alternative is to take advantage of automation. A comprehensive fleet management solution takes the hassle out of scheduling vehicle servicing. Especially when it’s combined with telematics data. Smartrak will keep track of the kilometres each vehicle travels, and our booking solution can also schedule service milestones to avoid conflicts with bookings. In addition to keeping on top of scheduled servicing, our solution can also provide reminders to staff for checks on the condition of tires; incorrect pressure can directly impact fuel efficiency and increase emissions.

Transportation alternatives

Using greener alternatives to vehicles could be one of the most immediate ways to reduce your fleet’s emissions and achieving this could be as simple as asking a question or using a Smartrak solution to do it for you. Start by encouraging employees to consider alternatives. For example, if someone books a vehicle just to drive a few blocks across town for a meeting, their manager might instead suggest alternatives. These could include taking a rideshare service such as Uber or jumping on public transport. Maybe the journey could be avoided altogether by going online for a meeting? Your organisation could also consider adding some e-scooters or e-bikes to the fleet, these would be a much greener and very efficient way for employees to get about in a city, or to travel around a campus. Or you could automate this process, by including a Smartrak solution that prompts anyone booking a vehicle to consider if there is a greener alternative. If you have e-scooters in the car park, this solution could also recommend them for shorter journeys and flag opportunities to conference call instead.

Integrating Mobility as a Service

Smartrak has taken a keen interest in the role that MaaS is going to play in the future. We can see that mobility concepts like micro-mobility (e-scooters and e-bikes) and active-mobility (cycling and walking) are playing an increasing role in how organisations seek to reduce their emissions and encourage healthier journey options for their employees. These are options that are within the capabilities of our current solutions, but Smartrak is looking ahead and working on developments that will leverage the broader thinking behind MaaS. Our development pathway will build on our leadership in shared vehicles, expanding that capability into sharing vehicles with employees for private use. This will reduce the need for employees to purchase their own vehicles, as they will be hiring a company vehicle for use outside of workhours. There’s a financial upside for the organisation too, as a vehicle that would of previously sat idle outside of workhours is now generating revenue. Eventually, we will have options for shared fleets between organisations, which will enable further reductions in emissions
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