City of York Council to transform it’s vehicle fleet

City of York Council is set to transform it’s fleet of vehicles and become a leader in the fight to reduce the city’s carbon emissions with an ambition to be carbon neutral by 2030.

A new report includes details of plans to reduce the carbon emissions from the council’s fleet (of 535 vehicles under 3.5 tonnes) by a third.

The current fleet is valued at £15.3 million and includes 180 vehicles that are under 3.5 tonnes and 153 which are currently due to be replaced over the next three years. Together they emit a total of 1,763 tonnes of CO2 every year.

Under the new proposals, the council would like to transition to a green/electric fleet over a four year phased period. This will include securing the infrastructure to enable an electric fleet to operate at council sites, and ordering three electric waste vehicles in the first year. In the second year, services  that are ready for an electric fleet can make the change as the infrastructure will then be in place.

In years three and four, those services that need a phased approach will be progressed to a 100 per cent electric as quickly as possible.

A fleet replacement programme is proposed which will be considered on an annual basis as part of the annual capital programme. However, as option three is the preferred option – this is estimated to cost in the region of £2.22 million.

Paula Widdowson, executive member for Environment and Climate Change, said: “We’re committed to creating a greener and cleaner city. Key to achieving this is our ambition to reduce carbon emissions to zero by 2030. Introducing a new green fleet to our waste, highways and housing teams will go a long way to achieving this goal.”

The council has already implemented a number of measures to address these challenges including introducing a clean air zone for buses and the transition of the Park & Ride fleet of buses to electric double decker buses will be completed this year.