The EST, which is funded by the government’s Department of Energy and Climate Change has rolled out its ‘Smarter Driving’ course to businesses in order to teach employees how to reduce fuel consumption through driving techniques.

This results in cost savings for organisations and the EST has said that UK drivers could save £5 billion per year by adopting this environmentally-friendly practice. The trust has also claimed, that if every driver in the UK was trained to improve their fuel economy, drivers could cut their carbon emissions by 10 million tonnes every year, the equivalent of the annual CO2 emissions of 1.8 million UK households.

The Department of Transport, which has funded the training project, plans to offer support at least until the end of the financial year, March 2009, and is currently negotiating with the trust about extending this for a further duration, which Nigel Underdown, head of transport advice at the EST said he was optimistic about as he had received positive feedback.

The training is carried out with a qualified driving instructor and lasts under an hour. Each driver completes a circuit twice, once before and after training. Miles per galleon are measured for both circuits so drivers can see how much they can save. The trainee then receives a certificate showing the percentage reduction in fuel consumption, stating how much money and CO2 this would save per year. The course costs £15 per employee with a minimum of 24 participants per organisation.

The idea for the training was developed when the EST carried out some work with its European partner, and discovered that the driving courses on offer were too expensive and not time effective enough for most organisations.

Therefore the trust ran a competition which was a trial scheme through the Reader’s Digest magazine and Ford Motors, which concluded in August 2008. Then in October this year employers were offered the first ‘Smarter Driving’ courses.

Research carried out by the EST found that nearly half, 44 per cent of British workers said that they would be more motivated if their employer offered some kind of green benefit, such as the smarter driving lessons. A third also cited their job as the reason that they did not have time to be green.

Transport minister, Andrew Adonis, said: “In the space of an hour’s smarter driving lesson with the Energy Saving Trust, drivers can save as much as 15 per cent of the fuel they use. For employers this means improved efficiency, with reduced emissions and cuts in fuel spending.”

Already, the trust has signed up 30 companies for the programme. This includes Microsoft who has agreed to a trial, involving 100 staff members. However, if this is successful then there are potentially four and a half thousand employees at its Reading headquarters alone who could be in line for this type of training. The Hampshire NHS Trust, Primary Care Trust for Mental Health has also piloted the course, carrying out a risk assessment beforehand to identify which of the workers needed the driver training the most. It currently has two and a half thousand staff using their cars for work purposes.

Underdown said: “I think if we had done this a couple of years ago the response would be very different to now. We have already seen a positive change of attitude towards green issues. There are two reasons for focusing on the workplace for this. The first is the practicalities, of driver training, back-to-back, on the day, to keep the costs down. The second is the power of communities and people talking to each other, getting people in the business talking about it and
saving money.”

He added: “The fact that we are offering a quick, convenient, low cost solution is a highly attractive proposition. You have to spread the word; people need to see how green and cost effective it is. There are always going to be the Jeremy Clarkson’s, the petrol heads, but if you get through to everyone else then that is fine. We need to get people behind the wheel to feel it, to reinforce it. We realized that we had a proposition which could be offered to employers at a reasonable cost and with intensive tuition you could get people to drive economically.”

According to Underdown: “In Japan they have an online league table whereby every time you fill up your car with fuel you register on the website, and you get a ranking, which measures your fuel consumption. We would like something like that over here, where you can measure and benchmark your fuel consumption each month.”

Subscribe to TJ news bulletins:

| Subscribe to our L & D RSS Feed

Related News

• Pick of the bunch?
• Choosing the blend
• Stakeholders in learning

Related Discussion Topics

• Training Standards
• Learning Resource Centres
• Promotion of Training in the Workplace

Latest News

• E-learning company raises its the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 awards ranking from previous year
• Vocational training sector faces further consolidation with £20 million acquisition
• Energy Saving Trust launches green driving training programme.
• Suzuki GB awards its first NVQ qualifications
• Economist expert warns “pay tomorrow” pre-budget could mean more job losses