Corporations Wanting to Go Green – How About a Corporate Hybrid Car Rental Policy?
Corporations big and small send employees all over the world to conduct business everyday. There is a single common business tool that all these employees use while on their business trips. No I’m not talking about their mobile phones or laptops or any of the other portable electronic gadgets. I’m talking about their rental cars.
Most business men and women rent cars at their destinations and drive very short distances and pretty much in stop-and-go traffic. Guess what? Those are perfect driving conditions to take advantage of hybrid cars. That’s the pro. The con about hybrid rental cars, at least for now, is that they cost more to rent per day than their conventional counterparts. So from the traveler’s, or in this case the company’s point of view, it makes no sense to spend more on transportation than necessary regardless of your corporate “go green” rhetoric.
If corporations can put in place a corporate hybrid car rental policy, the impact would be enormous. Here are the 3 points discussed by CleanCarTalk in a recent post about “The Greening of the Corporations – Saving Money or Saving the Environment.”
New corporate hybrid car rental policies can do the following:
- Directly support their corporate policies in “going green.” Many companies are already going green, from simple things like using less papers, encouraging employee carpooling, implementing recycling programs and teaching employees ways to save electricity, to complex things like converting operations to run on solar power, or putting into action various processes and equipment to operate more efficiently, utilize renewable power, and invest in carbon offset projects. A new corporate hybrid car rental policy just fits right in.
- Directly communicate to car rental companies (and car manufacturers) that there is a demand for hybrid, electric and fuel efficient cars. Fleets buy their cars in large numbers at a time, which is a perfect way to say to car makers that, yes, make more of these and we’ll buy them. Maybe the stimulus package should also set aside a good chunk for this sort of program. Compare to individual tax breaks that the stimulus plan provides, I think this program will make much bigger impact much sooner.
- Directly educate consumers (employees are consumers too) that hybrid, electric and fuel efficient cars is the way to go. The consumers’ dollars drive the economy, and for a car industry trying to pick itself up while promoting a new technology at the same time, this is “killing two birds with one stone.” Consumers will have a chance to “test drive” these new cars on an extended period of time as they go about their business or personal trips, which surely beats going into a dealer for a 5-minute test drive. I don’t know about you, but to me, an educated consumer is a good buyer.
There are so many benefits resulting from this single corporate policy act. I wonder why not many companies are doing it. Or better yet, as suggested, maybe a part of the stimulus package should go to promote programs like this.
What’s your company doing to go green and stay green? Share your viewpoints with us by leaving a comment below.
