The collapsed economy hasn’t soured commercial fleets' interest in greener vehicles, and in some cases, the recession has actually accelerated efforts.

That’s according to the results of the latest PHH Arval Green Fleets Survey, which probed public and private fleet managers about environmental issues and their impact on fleet decision-making. The slumping economy hasn’t affected the environmental initiatives of a majority of U.S. fleet managers, respondents said. Twenty-one percent reported it has sped up efforts, compared to 9 percent who said the economy has slowed their pursuit of fleet-related environmental goals.

Environmental initiatives aren’t taking a backseat to the economic recession.

“This is an extremely encouraging sign and may indicate that fleet managers are using the economic downturn to right-size vehicles, for both environmental and financial reasons,” the report said.  

Most fleet managers in the survey believe it is difficult to make their fleets greener without increasing costs, although PHH says a growing number of fleet managers have discovered ways to reduce their fleets’ environmental impacts while keeping costs flat. Still, cost was named as the No. 1 challenge standing in the way of fleet managers making their vehicles more environmentally friendly.

Asked another way, 44 percent of respondents named cost as a barrier to reducing fleet emissions, although nearly a quarter reported their efforts have led to cost savings.

Fleet managers cite cost as major challenge to reducing fleet impacts. 

This comes at a time when environmental awareness is growing and fleet managers feel  increasing pressure to reduce fleets’ emissions, especially larger fleets. Every respondent in the survey who described their jobs as full-time fleet management said they’d been asked about environmental impacts.

Nearly two-thirds of fleets have some sort of environmental goal in place, such as one related to greenhouse gas emissions or miles per gallon. Forty percent actually measure emissions; PHH recommends fleet managers track fuel consumption in order to get the most accurate emissions count.

Roughly one-third of fleet managers taking the survey are educating their drivers about the ways in which vehicle type can reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions, particularly sales fleets where there is greater emphasis on vehicle selection. In comparison, service fleets tend to focus more on driver behavior and vehicle maintenance to reduce fleet emissions.

PHH Arval, a fleet management company, expanded this year’s survey, making it difficult to compare results directly to previous iterations. In last year's poll, 80 percent revealed they’d been asked about their fleets’ environmental performance but only a quarter had emissions reduction goals in place and just 28 percent reported active measurement.

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