We’re delighted to announce that Avela Home Service has taken delivery of its first electric vehicles, to help lower the environmental impact of our repairs and maintenance service.
Four VW ID Buzz Cargo vans are already cleanly and silently going about their business in south Liverpool, representing 10 percent of the current Avela Home Service van fleet.
Our repair contractors rack up over 300,000 miles a year driving to and from their base in Speke to customers’ homes and local suppliers, and the environmental impact of these short journeys is why we’ve taken the decision to go electric, to help do our bit to improve local air quality by eliminating tailpipe emissions.
The move is just one part of our Planet strategy, which examines every aspect of our operations, impacting everything from retrofitting homes with lower carbon heating systems, solar panels and improved insulation, and building new homes with greatly improved EPC ratings to cleaning up the way we deliver our repairs service.
Each ID Buzz Cargo will travel an average of 256 miles on a single charge – more than enough range for a day’s appointments. So, moving from fossil fuels to electric will not just help save the planet, it will save on fuel costs too.
The current fleet of four electric vans means we’ve already met our ISO commitment to have 10% of our vehicle fleet electrified this year. Indeed, such has been the success of the rollout so far that Avela Home Service hopes to increase this figure to 20% by the end of the financial year. Looking further ahead, we will review the performance of the electric fleet, with a view of expanding the fleet further and fully reaping the benefits that EV can offer.
“Our Planet strategy is about how we as a business at SLH help deliver government and local targets around net carbon zero and that's all about improving the environment and addressing global warming through reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” said Anna Bishop, Chief Executive at South Liverpool Homes.
“It's really important that we have these electric vans because they play their part by not only using less petrol or diesel but the most importantly, they're not putting out those pollutants into the atmosphere.”
Gerard McEvoy, Head of Avela Home Service explained how the new vehicles fit into a new, more efficient service delivery model, in which every colleague plays their part.
“From our perspective, we looked at the makeup of our fleet - almost 40 vans operating exclusively in Speke and Garston - the local communities. The combined mileage of that fleet locally is over 300,000 miles a year.
“In order for us to be able to move and transition to a more environmentally friendly service, we had to look at some fundamentals in terms of how more efficiently and effectively we deliver the service.
“It was important for us to get buy-in from the workforce that we wanted to change the way we do things. With the first vehicles being rolled out, they're in high demand, everybody who's driving them absolutely loves them.
“Everyone is really enthusiastic, and I think it's important for them to see that they work for an organisation that is committed to this environmental cause and they play no small part in that.”
But aside from a cleaner, leaner and more efficient service, improving the quality of service to our customers is the bottom line, as Angela Perry, Executive Director of Assets and Development explained.
“We've got a more efficient vehicle fleet to make sure we can get to the customers on time, we can schedule repairs in a much more efficient way, and give a great service to our customers which is what we're all about.”