The contract hire and salary sacrifice specialist is currently offering the training to all its customers’ salary sacrifice drivers to help them maximise their vehicle’s fuel consumption, following a new partnership with the EST.

The course shows how the use of simple changes to driving techniques, including greater anticipation, lighter braking and less harsh manoeuvres, should help drivers to reduce fuel consumption by up to 15%, based on EST real-life experiences.

This is also borne out by Tusker’s own experiences. Employees, including CEO David Hosking, at the firm took part in the EST-organised training using a route designed to replicate all the circumstances of modern driving in under an hour. The training also measured the drivers’ performance at the start and end of the training sessions under the supervision of a training instructor.

The EST found that by the end of the 50-minute sessions, which emphasise greater awareness and enhanced anticipation in driving techniques, the average fuel consumption had fallen by 12.1%.

Applied to the participating staff’s annual business use of their company cars, the improvement had the potential to lower Tusker’s carbon footprint by over 10 tonnes.

Tusker’s customer services manager, Claire Pacey, was surprised by the results.

‘We work in a sector that probably makes you consider fuel efficiency more than the average but, even so, I was able to make a significant improvement just by following some simple techniques,’ she said.

The Smarter Driving initiative followed the participation by all Tusker staff, both field and office based, in the EST’s Green Fleet Management Training, ensuring that the whole company remained up to speed with the latest thinking on efficiency and carbon reduction in the fleet industry.

David Hosking commented: ‘Carbon footprints, energy efficiency and other green issues are talked about a lot in our industry, but it has been important for us to go beyond the norm in terms of training, and we are very pleased to have partnered with the Energy Saving Trust. It’s about saving money for customers, but it’s also about our responsibility as an industry to be advocates.’