With fluctuating gasoline prices and increased concern with air quality, everyone is thinking more than ever about conserving fuel. We all have a very personal interest in finding ways to get more driving distance out of a dollar spent on our automobiles.
Fortunately there are a number of things that almost every driver can do, to hold down fuel costs and other costs of operating a vehicle. And even better – just about all of those changes to your driving and car maintenance habits will also make a positive contribution to the health of the environment! Read about it here and then make a plan to help yourself and the environment at the same time!
What is ENMAX doing to help?
ENMAX now has a number of vehicles using biodiesel and hopes to continue to increase the number of fleet vehicles switching to this fuel. Filling up with biodiesel is only one of the fleet department initiatives that make ENMAX a leader when it comes to turning our environmental strategy into real solutions.
Other innovative programs include the use of hybrid vehicles, promoting idling reduction when operationally feasible, and opting for better fuel management systems on regular vehicles. The ENMAX fleet now contains two dozen hybrid vehicles and plans to expand over the next few years. In fact, the newest addition to the fleet will be one of the first prototypes of its kind released in Canada. A hybrid bucket truck joined our fleet in the spring of 2009, one of only 27 released in Canada.
All of these initiatives have successfully reduced emissions from ENMAX’s fleet of vehicles and the Supervisor of Fleet Services has the numbers to prove it. At 2006 year-end, statistics showed that although vehicle usage was up by 9.1 per cent, fuel use actually went down by 5.1 per cent. So while it may look like business as usual on the road, driving more hybrid vehicles, filling up with biodiesel, and turning off the engines of idling trucks have helped us reduce our carbon footprint and have led to greater cost efficiency.