Fleets should move to ‘real world’ CO2, says Chevin26 November 2014

Commercial vehicle fleet operators should be moving from manufacturer CO2 figures to more realistic measures when calculating their carbon footprint, according to Chevin Fleet Solutions.

The fleet software specialist points to figures from pressure group Transport and Environment suggesting that manufacturers are using techniques to artificially reduce their CO2 claims, resulting in an average 31% under-report.

T&E is backing moves that would see the EU force manufacturers to adopt the World Light Vehicle Test Procedure, a new global standard for fuel and emissions measurements, believed to be more realistic.

"We are reaching a situation where manufacturer 'official' CO2 figures are really being robbed of their credibility, certainly in terms of absolute accuracy," states Ashley Sowerby, managing director at Chevin.

"Fleets that are serious about calculating carbon footprint in a meaningful sense need to find new ways of measuring their output," he continues.

"This is an important area of company vehicle activity and we should all be striving for precision."

Sowerby says that fleets using Chevin's software are increasingly using a fuel-use based calculation as a more credible alternative to manufacturers' data.

"We see this very much as an indication of the way in which the official figures are falling out of favour.

"The software provides the option to work out individual vehicle/driver or global CO2 figures using either of the two methods and we are certainly seeing more fleets adopt the fuel-based approach."

Author
Brian Tinham

Related Companies
Chevin Fleet Solutions

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