Following major savings from its initial programme, York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has significantly expanded the hourly vehicle rental service offered to its employees for business trips through Enterprise Car Club, from ten to 37 cars.
The Trust began operating Enterprise cars at York Hospital in 2014 alongside daily rentals, a programme that has led to an annual saving of £24,000. The new expanded service will now operate at ten locations, including Scarborough, Bridlington and Malton Hospitals as well as other healthcare facilities in the region.
York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust previously relied heavily on the ‘grey fleet’ of employees using their own cars for work trips and claiming mileage reimbursement.
By switching to Enterprise Car Club vehicles for employees to book for short trips, as well as Enterprise Rent-A-Car vehicles hired by the day for journeys of more than 50 miles, the Trust has been able to meet its three key transport objectives:
- Financial – the reduction in both overall business mileage and expensive mileage reimbursement claims means much lower transport costs
- Sustainability – not only are the Enterprise cars newer and therefore less polluting than the older cars employees tend to own, the vehicles’ presence on-site has reduced the need for Trust employees to drive to work and enabled them to take public transport instead, cutting traffic and commuter mileage
- Health and safety – the Enterprise cars are always well-maintained, whereas the Trust had little or no control over the condition of personal cars being used for work journeys. The Trust is also now able to confirm all its business drivers have valid driving licences and business-use insurance.
Brian Golding, director of estates and facilities at York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, comments: “Our car club programme at York Hospital has been a real success and showed that we could move away from the expense and administrative hassles of mileage reimbursement at our other sites as well.
“Enterprise enables us to keep our employees mobile as and when they need it, while helping to reduce costs, meet our sustainability objectives and ensure our people drive safe, modern cars. We’re finding that our employees are driving fewer miles, which is also beneficial.
“Using the data the Enterprise team provides on business journeys, we’ve also been able to create a comprehensive travel policy that promotes car sharing and further reduces mileage by ensuring employees only take trips that are absolutely necessary.”
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Brian Waligora, general manager for the North of England at Enterprise Rent-A-Car, adds: “Mobility is vital for frontline health providers such as the York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, but the pressure for the UK public sector is to find ways to make this travel more efficient. The grey fleet can seem convenient, but allowing employees to claim mileage when they drive their own vehicles is estimated to cost it hundreds of millions of pounds per year.
“The Trust has seen the opportunity presented by car clubs by running a small pilot and seeing how it achieved so much more than just lower costs. It’s also providing a solution that enables the Trust to measure the benefits precisely. Expanding this programme shows how much value car clubs and rental can bring and is an example for other organisations that are currently buried in mileage reimbursement claims.”
York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust provides a comprehensive range of acute hospital and specialist healthcare services across York, North Yorkshire, North East Yorkshire and Ryedale.
