Why is this important?
The primary factor driving total greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles is their sheer number on the road, more so than the size of the cars or the type of powertrain they use. Road transport of passengers and freight represents 10% of global carbon emissions (and 69% of emissions of the transport sectors) (1). The number of cars on the road is expected to further rise: The quantity of light vehicles is expected to increase by 50% in 2050 (1.1 billon in 2015 to 1.7 billion in 2050) (2).
In addition to the climate impacts, the expansion of motorized vehicles brings numerous other adverse environmental impacts, like soil artificialisation and harmful gases and particulate matter from tailpipe emissions. It also poses risks to public health through air pollution, noise, and reduced physical activity, while exacerbating safety concerns and traffic congestion.
What's the solution?
Optimising the use of the vehicles to avoid further addition of vehicles or to, ideally, decrease the number of cars in an organisation’s fleet is essential. It means using vehicles less often but with a higher occupancy rate. One viable option to do so is to implement carpooling and ridesharing programs.
In order to do so, the first step is to work on movement planning to identify carpooling opportunities. Involve other actors and partner agencies. Start small and make carpooling happen with simple or easily recurrent movements (i.e. trips from and to the airport). Make sure that leadership committed and acts as an example. include carpooling in the transport policy. Adapt the fleet according to movement reduction achieved. Raise awareness and motivate the staff to be part of the change.
In October 2023, 70% of Fleet Forum members committed to have vehicle sharing implemented in at least 20% of their missions by 2026 (3).
Point of attention
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Point of attention
- Rebound effect: The efficiency gains from ride sharing/carpooling (reduced fuel consumption) could lead to additional and unnecessary trips (drive more often or more km), which might offset the initial savings.
- Pooling and sharing means shifting habits and behaviours rather than technical or technological hurdles. Over the past two decades, the Aid sector fleet became more professional, with fleet allocated to and managed by project level. The humanitarian and aid sector are committed to change this practice and adopt a collaborative approach, as several carpooling projects can testify (see below ‘success stories’).
Key actions
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#1 Implement movement planning
Movement planning is a key tool to diagnose, plan, and optimise fleet movement. Make sure it is user-friendly and in place in all locations.
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#2 Identify sharing/pooling opportunities
Analyse and consolidate a weekly/periodic movement planning within your organisation, and spot pooling opportunities. Share with other partners when appropriate (for ex: combined airport movements, or inter-agency meetings) and invite them to share their movements and promote carpooling.
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#3 Engage into action: have pooled/shared movements happening
Start small, take small steps, use the first successes to engage with more users / agencies. For example, airport transportation can be combined with different agencies, or recurrent cluster meetings. Make sure the leadership acts by example and optimises or carpools like everyone.
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#4 Setup an operational framework
Benchmark interagency practices (insurances, safety protocols…), frame the collaboration by editing and signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and minimum requirements, establish interagency communication channels. Set up a transport policy including carpooling and car movement optimisation. Produce a report on fuel or fleet reduction to acknowledge and reward the improvements made by the fleet manager, drivers, and users.
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#5 Adapt fleet management composition or allocation
Modify the size and profile of your fleet according to the pooling practices, that might include reducing it overall size, adopting vehicles with more passengers’ capacities in some cases, or re-allocating assets at destination of ride-sharing routes to cover last-mile requirements.
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#6 Drive the change
Engage with users and sensitise them, run a staff survey to identify barriers and opportunities to pool and share, ensure leadership from senior management.
To consider
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Potential co-benefits
- Immediate cost reduction
- Promote Interagency collaboration: from ridesharing to joint car rental to procurement)
- Reduced number of vehicles on the road and total kilometres driven (“Avoid” strategy)
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Success conditions
- Involvement of leadership who act by example and carpool like others
- Level of understanding about environmental challenges is raised among staff and fleet users
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Prerequisites & specificities
- Movement planning is a must have in order to identify opportunities for pooling and sharing
- Willingness to share and do things differently from the users/passengers side
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Potential risks
- In some humanitarian fields, sharing the same fleet means mixing identification and eventually raise perception issues.
Tools and good practices
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Fleet Forum Ridesharing toolbox
Set of tools available to concretely engage into interagency movements’ pooling and face implementation challenges.
Explore it here -
Carpooling apps
For trips in Europe, carpooling apps bring together drivers and ride-seekers. BlaBla Car is a well-known one, but more local options often exist.
Explore it here
To go further
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Reduction of life-cycle CO2 emissions by expanding car-sharing services: A case study on Japan, 2023
This study explores how car-sharing deployment in Japan can reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, in particular private cars.
Explore it here -
Impacts of shared mobility on vehicle lifetimes and on the carbon footprint of electric vehicles, 2022
This study suggests that replacing 10 individual cars by one shared car could reduce 41% vehicles carbon footprint by 2050.
Explore it here
Featured
Eco-driving
Commuting
Freight
Professional travel
Acknowledgments
This factsheet was prepared with the support from the Fleet Forum. Last updated 25 June 2024.
Share your success stories, suggestions, and comments with us! contact@climateactionaccelerator.org
Sources
(1) IPCC 6e report, chapter 10 (Transport), section 10.1.2 : Jaramillo, P., S. Kahn Ribeiro, P. Newman, S. Dhar, O.E. Diemuodeke, T. Kajino, D.S. Lee, S.B. Nugroho, X. Ou, A. Hammer Strømman, J. Whitehead, 2022: Transport. In IPCC, 2022: Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change[P.R. Shukla, J. Skea, R. Slade, A. Al Khourdajie, R. van Diemen, D. McCollum, M. Pathak, S. Some, P. Vyas, R. Fradera, M. Belkacemi, A. Hasija, G. Lisboa, S. Luz, J. Malley, (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA. doi: 10.1017/9781009157926.012
(2) Ghandi, A, & S Paltsev, ‘Global CO2 impacts of light-duty electric vehicles’. in Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 87, 2020, 102524. Available here.
(3) Boere, R, ‘Fleet Forum Summit outcome: Reflections on the commitments made, next steps to be taken’. in Fleet Forum, 2023. Available here [accessed 27 May 2024].
(4) Castaignède. 2018. Airvore ou la face obscure des transports. Available here.
(5)Fiorello, D, A Martino, L Zani, P Christidis, & E Navajas-Cawood, ‘Mobility Data across the EU 28 Member States: Results from an Extensive CAWI Survey’. in Transportation Research Procedia, 14, 2016, 1104–1113. Available here.
(6) Fleet Forum – Vehicle Sharing Lebanon performance report (jan-july 2023), https://www.fleetforum.org/vehicle-sharing
(7) Fleet Forum, ‘Benchmarking | Fleet Forum’. in Fleet Forum, 2016. Available here.
(8) IPCC 6e report, chapter 10 (Transport), section 10.2.3 : Jaramillo, P., S. Kahn Ribeiro, P. Newman, S. Dhar, O.E. Diemuodeke, T. Kajino, D.S. Lee, S.B. Nugroho, X. Ou, A. Hammer Strømman, J. Whitehead, 2022: Transport. In IPCC, 2022: Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change[P.R. Shukla, J. Skea, R. Slade, A. Al Khourdajie, R. van Diemen, D. McCollum, M. Pathak, S. Some, P. Vyas, R. Fradera, M. Belkacemi, A. Hasija, G. Lisboa, S. Luz, J. Malley, (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA. doi: 10.1017/9781009157926.012. Available here.
Cover photo
Cover photo: Alex Chernenko/Unsplash