Congratulations Moreland City Council
2020 Fleet Environment Award Winner Accepted by Mario Sansotta Proudly sponsored by : Hyundai Motor Company Australia
Led by Fleet Coordinator Mario Sansotta the
Moreland City Council has been responsible for some game changing work in their journey towards zero emissions . The Moreland team started their electric vehicle ( EV ) journey with just one Nissan Leaf before introducing others models to reach an EV fleet of 24 EVs and 15 hybrids . More recently the team has added electric bikes to their lineup as part of their ambition to become Zero Carbon by 2040 .
“ Moreland City Council has taken a leadership role to move from fossil fuels to renewable energy to reduce our carbon footprint ,” Mario said .
“ The environment has always been important to us but it ’ s been a bit of a struggle for people to come on board with the vision at first .”
Moreland City Council now provides
recognition and incentives for carpooling , using electric bicycle fleet , working from home , public transport usage . For Mario and the team it was all about engaging with the staff community and getting them to realise that value of EVs wasn ’ t
just all about environment but that there was significant savings and convenience to be made from the strategy .
“ Our people were a little intimidated about the EVs at first but what we did was work with them and make them comfortable ,” Mario said .
“ What we found was that by the end of the process they were the most popular vehicles to drive in our fleet – our drivers loved driving them .”
Moreland has expanded their public electric vehicle charging network to 16 stations in 2020 including two more 50kW DC fast charging stations in Brunswick . All are available free to use to encourage uptake of zero emissions vehicles .
“ Moving towards renewable energy vehicles the cost savings for us are the fuel , the service and maintenance of the vehicles and also the convenience of putting the vehicles on charge across the day while we work ,” Mario said .
“ I ’ d encourage other organisations to seriously consider EV vehicles as they are a game changer in how we move our staff around the municipality .”
26 ISSUE 26 DECEMBER 2020 / WWW . AFMA . ORG . AU