Innovation Pilot Partner: Enterprise Car Club

Dundee City Council is working with Enterprise Car Club to develop a new model that will enable vehicles in its fleet to be used more efficiently and shared with other organisations.

The pilot will reduce costs and carbon by introducing a new low emission car club to optimise the use of existing vehicles, reduce the need for expensive short-term hire contracts and discourage grey fleet mileage (where an individual is reimbursed for using their own private vehicle).

In-vehicle telematics, a new booking platform, keyless entry technology and a behaviour management tool will make it easier for council staff to access the vehicles. This will also facilitate the sharing of vehicles with Police Scotland and other businesses across the city.

This approach will also create cost and carbon savings in Enterprise’s delivery model. In particular, it will eliminate the need to send two drivers and a second car into the city to deliver a short-term hire vehicle.

The pilot project is already saving Dundee City Council money on a monthly basis through replacing spot hires. Extending this model as currently planned, this could significantly increase this saving. Administrative time will also be reduced in terms of resource required to manage bookings and keys for pool car vehicles. DCC staff can book cars themselves using the online system provided, assessing the cars anytime.

There could be an average of £22,000 annual cost savings to local businesses participating in the Enterprise Car Club pilot through transition from “grey fleet” to the use of shared, low emission vehicles by staff (depending on the number of vehicles and users).

The possibility that vehicles can eventually be used or shared after working hours could also reduce the costs to participating organisations.