NWH Group selects electric car fleet following advice from Gofor Finance

The NWH Group, has decided to implement an all electric car fleet policy to reduce its carbon footprint and underline its green credentials following advice and information from Edinburgh-based fleet management provider, Gofor Finance.

The NWH Group provides waste collection services to the leisure, retail and construction industries, collecting trade waste via a fleet of trade refuse, skip, tipper, grab and walking floor articulated vehicles. It then transports materials to its recycling facilities where they are transformed into high-value products such as cardboard, paper, washed sands, biomass for energy and animal bedding.

The NWH Group is a second-generation family business headquartered in Midlothian, serving the whole of Scotland and Newcastle from ten sites. It currently employs 350 staff and operates a fleet of over 150 specialist recycling vehicles, along with a mixed fleet of a further 60 cars and vans, currently either petrol or diesel.

However, from April 6, the company is introducing an all-electric car policy that will see every car on the fleet being replaced by an electric model as they come up for renewal. The first five new electric cars will be Tesla Model 3 Long Range models which have a range of up to 348 electric miles.

Operations Director Craig Williams said: ”We wanted new cars that reflected our corporate service and underlined our green credentials as a recycling company. 

“We have been working with Gofor Finance for several years and they provided us with the all the relevant information and advice to help inform our decision to go electric. This included details of a number of electric options based on monthly rental costs, mileage and tax so that we could select the electric vehicles most appropriate to our needs.

“We looked at the various options available but then opted for the Tesla Model 3 because of its longer all-electric range, even though it was not the cheapest in terms of monthly rental.

“The new models will be for our directors, senior teams and our sales staff, and thanks to the new Benefit-in-Kind tax regime that starts on April 6 with a 0% tax rate, that equates to a saving of around £5,000 a year in tax for our employees and colleagues, plus the additional advantage of savings in National Insurance.

“We would also be keen to switch our van and heavy goods fleet to all-electric operation if there were the right models available,” he said.

To help meet its duty of care obligations, NWH Group will also fit the new cars with trackers and front and driver-facing cameras.

“We find that the cameras change our drivers’ behaviours and act as a major deterrent from using their mobile phones while driving and therefore keeping them and other road users safe, while we put trackers on all our vehicles to record mileages and trace their location,” said Craig Williams.

Graham Leslie, Managing Director at Gofor Finance, said: “We have worked closely with The NWH Group for a number of years and are glad to have been instrumental in helping them make the decision to opt for an all-electric car fleet.

“Now that we have had confirmation of the new BIK rates for electric cars following last week’s Budget, there are real financial incentives, as well as environmental benefits, for companies to go down an all-electric route.

“We believe that the Government has given a very clear signal to the market to switch to electric vehicle operation as quickly as possible and we expect more of our clients to go be going through this process very shortly,” he said.