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Alliance Cleaning Goes HybridPosted On 2011-03-15ALLIANCE GOES HYBRID...AND INTELLIGENT TOO! More and more increasingly we're being told of the ill effects of fossil-fuels and the negative effect of the emissions our cars produce on the planet's environment and it's healthy future. It is not uncommon for businesses to be running a busy fleet of vehicles ranging from small cars to large-engined cars and vans. Now consider that any one typical vehicle within that fleet may cover an annual mileage of anything from 10,000 to 40,000 miles. It's not rocket science, but multiply the number of vehicles by their mileages then consider how many similar fleets there are within the UK's business community...and, well it's very clear that it's time we did something to reduce the harm we're causing to the environment by reconsidering how we use our business vehicles. We can all make a difference, however big or small your fleet may be - after all, what we do today, impacts our world tomorrow. Alliance Cleaning's fleet was made up of a mixture of cars and vans, really quite an array of different vehicles each producing different carbon outputs but critically all having a negative effect on the environment. Both Danny and Ian realised that in their quest for carbon neutrality throughout Alliance, a key area to begin making positive changes was within the transport and travel sector of the company. On the 10th of October 2010, Ian placed an order for six Toyota Auris vehicles to immediately replace six of Alliance's Area Managers' vehicles. The Auris' come powered by the Hybrid Synergy Drive system which was named Green Engine of the Year for the sixth successive year. What do these vehicles mean to Alliance and why make such a change? Well in business sense terms, Alliance will be saving on six sets of road-tax charges and huge reductions on the fuel expenses for those vehicles; and Alliance now has six vehicles which typically travel in and out of Central London every day, fully exempt of the London congestion charge! (That's £10.00 per vehicle per day!!) Now to the environmental benefits of this change. As the Auris' engines are a mere 1 litre, there are two environmental benefits here. Firstly, the actual fuel consumption levels are reduced (for all six vehicles) as the fuel-engine part of the hybrid system is technically only used for re-charging the battery part of the system. So secondly, less fuel usage also means less harmful fuel emissions. Alliance are measuring the fuel usage of their new vehicles against last year's usage in order to calculate the financial, and environmental benefits of the switch to Hybrid powered vehicles. This data will be published on the Alliance Blog when available. And here's the intelligent part... Each Auris, indeed each and every vehicle in the Alliance fleet is being fitted with a GPS Tracking Device. This, generally unwelcome device, serves many purposes from being able to provide Clients with the best possible response times, to business intelligence gathering, cost management and environmental impact monitoring. Alliance Head Office can see in real-time where each vehicle is at anytime. This intelligence comes into its own when you, the Client, phones in with an issue - let's say you've had a flood and need an urgent clean-up - Head Office can instantly see who is closest to your location, inform them of the full details of the issue and re-direct them, and inform you of how long you're likely to have to wait before the Operative arrives to begin work on your flood. How's that for service... Additionally the system provides continuous reporting on mileage, average speed, time spent in vehicle, fuel used and many other reports - each report synchronising with Alliance's own MI system. And finally, as Emily from Alliance's Credit Control department commented on the new Auris's, "Ooooh don't they look nice!!!" For more information on how Alliance is embracing change and aiming for carbon neutrality to reduce harm to the environment, please call on 01992 700073. 
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