"Jump now before you are pushed" was the message from a leading environmental consultant to companies thinking about introducing green policies for their car fleets.

Business leaders who attended Kingston Matters Forum last week were told that the writing is on the wall for gas-guzzling, polluting, inefficient car fleets.

Companies that act now will not only save money in the long term but avoid radical change being forced on them by the government.

Half of the cars on Britain's roads started their lives as company cars, and with car fleets costing £2bn a year they are inevitably going to be a major target in the Government's a transport White Paper early this summer.

There are already rumours about a proposed tax on company car parking and there may well be tax penalties for big cars with high petrol consumption.

Katharine Robinson, who helped DHL become one of Britain's most environmentally sensitive companies, said there was a wide variety of ways to trim down car fleets and make them more environmentally friendly.

These include buying fuel-efficient cars, switching to "green" fuels and fitting fuel- saving tyres which can save nine per cent on consumption.

Free fuel encourages unnecessary journeys and although it will be difficult to wean long-term users off this she suggested a start could be made by ensuring new employees were not given this perk.

Driver training could not just cut down on the number of accidents, up to 50 per cent more than with privately-owned cars, but it would reduce fuel wasted by the accelerate-brake school of driving.

Reduction

Monitoring fuel consumption could also help and when DHL introduced this for everyone, including the MD, there was a 6.5 per cent reduction - a saving of £100,000 a year.

"The best-managed car fleets use 50 per cent less fuel than the worst," she stressed.

Radical schemes such as offering employees cash instead of cars and providing maintenance for private cars are also being successfully introduced.

Cutting down on car parking provision, showers for cyclists and subsidised travel on public transport were other options worth consideration.

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