London fleet adds B30 following customer requests
November 21, 2011
BY Luke Geiver
A London-based private fleet service has listened to customer feedback regarding the fleet’s use of environmentally friendly vehicles, and now Greentomatocars has added biodiesel. The fleet, mainly made up of 200 Toyota Prius cars, will now offer eight-passenger vehicles and executive cars fueled by a B30 blend. “Since we launched five-and-a-half years ago, our fleet has been exclusively comprised of the hybrid Toyota Prius, an unquestionably green choice for people travelling from A to B in London,” said Hamish Phillips, head of innovation at Greentomatocars. Phillips spoke with Biodiesel Magazine regarding Greentomatocar’s move to add biodiesel-fueled vehicles to the fleet.
“Recent feedback from customers has shown that they needed other options but still wanted to make a consciously green decision when choosing their private hire provider,” Phillips said. “With this in mind, rather than simply bolting on a nongreen solution, we wanted to maintain our green identity, and biodiesel-fueled vehicles fit this requirement perfectly.”
The company is running biodiesel in the Citroen C6 (similar to a Toyota Camry) and the Citroen Combi Dispatch (similar to a standard mini-van) and, according to Phillips, the company has already ordered more cars for delivery early in the new year. In the future, the company also hopes to establish a partnership with many of the clients it provides vehicle services for, using the waste vegetable oil produced by the clients as feedstock for biodiesel used to fuel the clients’ own vehicle fleets.
For Phillips and the company, the idea of closed-loop recycling is “exciting,” and allows those participating companies an option in maintaining a reduced emissions fleet.
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The name of Phillips fleet, Greentomatocars, was originally conceived in 2004 by a London-based lawyer, and was aimed at providing the most environmentally friendly taxi fleet in the city. Since 2004, the company has launched other “Greentomato” ventures, including an energy consulting unit that provides building, energy design and retrofit services.
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