CFC Solutions believes that the wide-ranging cost-cutting measures adopted by fleets as a result of the economic climate are also driving down their carbon levels faster than any number of specialist environmental policies.

But what's the evidence for this? CFC's fleet software has included a CO2 report module for some time, so we're able to look at historical data in this area and track trends over recent years.

This module is used by our car fleet customers on the whole, but we are seeing enough data to be reasonably confident that the same can be claimed for van and truck operators.

What the figures are indicating is that the cost-driven changes fleets have made in response to the recession over the past 12 months have also, almost coincidentally, had a beneficial effect on their carbon footprint.

What seems to be happening is that many of the changes needed on fleets to bring about both better cost control and improved CO2 performance have been made possible by the changing managerial culture of the recession.

For example, on car fleets, there has been a sudden and highly visible shift. When the economy was strong, attracting the best staff was difficult; it was tricky to say no to your sales team if they all wanted heavy and inefficient 4x4s.

Today, putting policies in place that prohibit having those types of vehicles on your fleet is easily justified on cost grounds - they use a lot more fuel than a comparable saloon or hatchback, and, of course, produce much more CO2.

There are parallel developments of all kinds affecting commercial vehicle fleets. Sensible, recession-inspired moves such as

• improved journey planning
• better load maximisation
• increased efforts to backload
  
• and closer monitoring of how driving styles effect fuel economy

are now being pursued as key management objectives by many van and truck fleets. All of these have genuine environmental benefits.

Some of the positive green effects of the recession are not just about changes in managerial policy. One of the results of the downturn is that there are fewer vehicles on the road, with newly published government figures showing road traffic has fallen by around 3.4% year-on-year.

This is bad news for the economy as a whole, but good news for fleets that are still making journeys. If your vans and trucks are covering routes more quickly and encountering less congestion, you are spending less on fuel and your carbon output will also be lower.

Looking to the future, the recession could also have ongoing, beneficial green effects, because it is changing the types of vehicles that are likely to be available to fleets. It seems that barely a day goes by without a major manufacturer announcing plans to introduce new, more environmentally friendly technology in future models.

For example, while there are numerous hurdles to overcome, we could even soon see fleets buying relatively large numbers of practical electric vans from major manufacturers with full dealer support that are suitable for local delivery routes.

The running cost profiles of these vehicles is unclear, but they are likely to be very cheap to run on a day-to-day basis with zero emissions at the tailpipe - a step forward that we would probably have been unlikely to make without the recession.

The opinion contained within this blog post is that of its author and was previously submitted for publication in Commercial Motor. It does not reflect the opinion of Commercial Motor or Roadtransport.com.

All opinion articles should be submitted to Commercial Motor news editor Christopher Walton for consideration, either via email to christopher.walton@rbi.co.uk or in writing to Commercial Motor, Quadrant House, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS. They should be between 500 and 700 words. We reserve the right to edit submitted opinion articles.