In Graz, the largest taxi company is switching its fleet from diesel to biodiesel cars. In order to promote biodiesel for others, the taxi filling station is available also for the public.
This measure is only available in English!
Objectives / Innovative Aspects
The measure objective was to accelerate the gradual change from fossil fuel to biodiesel in the largest taxi fleet in Graz.
In Austria, Graz is the first city to switch to bio-diesel for a taxi fleet of this size. A new bio-diesel service station for taxis was established to meet the increased demand for bio-diesel.
The Measure
Taxi 878 in Graz has 220 cars in its fleet and is thereby the city’s biggest taxi company. The company wants to reduce its environmental impact and works actively for this. All drivers have been introduced to environmental issues as a part of a one day training programme for the entire company.
In order to make the shift from diesel to biodiesel easier, a fuelling station for biodiesel was established at Taxi 878 headquarters. The filling station is also open to the public, thus encouraging other companies as well as citizens to use biodiesel. The large-scale introduction of biodiesel in a taxi company makes it possible to gather information about repair, maintenance and service needs when using biodiesel.
Most Taxi 878 drivers are not employees but franchisers, which add an extra challenge to the shift. A central decision to use another fuel is not enough - facts and information must convince individual members to voluntarily change fuels. A campaign to this end addressed subjects such as quality of the biofuel, using the fuel on cold winter days and biodiesel use in general.
After solving technical problems with the fuel filters, over 25% of the taxi fleet has switched to biodiesel within CIVITAS TRENDSETTER, it is expected that the target of 60% will be reached in the future.
Results
Conversion to biodiesel of a private taxi fleet with many franchised individual operators is much more difficult then of a centrally controlled public fleet. “Time is money” is much more important. As technical problems arose (blocked fuel filters) the whole project was put on hold. There were also problems with the liabilities and involved guarantees from car manufacturers.
Helpful is the participation and supporting role of experts. It was proven within this project, that a supervision of an expert group (in this case carrying out fuel quality tests and determining the source of lacking quality and ensuing technical problems) is essential for the whole project. So if problems arise do not hesitate to get support of an expert group!
