The full service law firm employs over 1,000 staff and chose City Car Club because they offer a much greener alternative to running a fleet. The firm will now begin phasing out their company cars and renting locally parked City Cars for as little as £4.95-per-hour as and when they need them.
City Car Club reduces the need for staff to commute to work by car and also leads to a significant decrease in unnecessary short car journeys during the day. On average businesses reduce their CO2 car output by around 35%** when changing from fleet cars to the car club. Across the 500 strong fleet based all around cities around the UK City Car Club saves 12,246 tonnes of CO2 emissions every year, the equivalent of 4,621 flights to Australia.
For work trips where a car is required, City Cars can be booked at a moment’s notice on the internet on www.citycarclub.co.uk or by phone on 0845 330 1234. The City Cars are parked in convenient on-street locations near the DWF’s offices in Manchester, Leeds and London and they are also available in 11 other cities across the UK for staff business meetings elsewhere in the country.
City Car Club CEO James Finlayson said: “This is a major initiative by DWF and will immediately lower their carbon output whilst reducing their costs at the same time. 2009 saw our business membership grow by over 70% as more and more businesses of all sizes realised the benefits of car club membership.”
City Car Club membership is much cheaper than running a fleet. DWF pay a small annual membership fee per driver and the company is sent a monthly bill with each individual staff member’s usage. The financial savings can be huge and for staff doing less than 4,000 business miles-a-year it amounts to over £1,800 per fleet car per year.
DWF Finance Director Arthur Ferry said: “Using City Car Club has enabled DWF not only to be more green efficient but it is also very convenient as we have cars less than a two minute walk away from the office. It’s much less hassle than running a fleet as we don’t have to worry about maintenance, depreciation and insurance.
City Car Club is not the only operator in this market as StreetCar operate a similar scheme aimed more at the private user allowing them access to a fleet of VW Polo, Golf and also Van’s on a by hour arrangement.
