On 25th September 2008, a third Corporate Vehicle Observatory was held to present the results of European fleet market study – the CVO Barometer 2008.

The participants included Arval Polska guests, journalists, as well as representatives of companies and organizations partnering the meeting - Mercedes-Benz Polska, the Polish Organization of Oil Industry and Trade and the National Biofuel Chamber. Almost 70 people gathered in Hyatt Regency
Warsaw ballrooms, welcomed by Janusz Kowalik, Arval Polska CEO, and were able to listen to astonishingly interesting presentations by Andrzej Olszewski, TNS OBOP CEO and Vincent Rupied, International CVO Manager, as well as to oberve an intruguing panel discusion on the „Automotive sector and the environmental challenges”.

The environmental challgenges were the main theme of all presentations and the whole meeting. During his presentation of the CVO Barometer 2008, Andrzej olszewski talked about attitudes manifested by fleet policy decision makers in Poland as well as about actions taken by them as a reaction to such challenges. In our country – as the TNS OBOP CEO underlined – the so-called green vehicles constitute exceptionally large share of all company cars. It is a staggering 43% as compared to the european average of merely 23%. This discrepancy, however, is mainly a result of widespread popularity of LPG and LNG powered vehicles in Poland. This in turn might lead to a conclusion that locally, the environmental attitudes are closely linked to seeking savings in an era of ever-growing fuel costs.

This coupling was also noted by Vincent Rupied. Simultaneously, he stressed a significant role played by the fleet industry professionals in efficient combatting of environental hazards. First of all – he said –modern operational leasing has a significant bearing on making vehicle markets in individual countries younger through mass purchases of new cars (Arval itself purchases about 170k annually), with younger, less worn out cars obviously translate to lower emission levels. Secondly, company car fleets undergo regular technical inspections and diagnostic sessions. In this aspect, the close relationship between good technical condition of a vehicle and limited environmentally hazardous emissions does not have to be explained extensively.

The area of technology was also the key subject of panel discussion; the participants there included Piotr Wójcik representing Mercedes-Benz Polska, Krzysztof Romaniuk from the  Polish Organization of Oil Industry and Trade, Tomasz Pańczyszyn from the National Biofuel Chamber and Janusz Kowalik already mentioned above. The first guest talked about fuel-saving and emission-reducing new generation engines, quoting the example of BlueTec technology utilized by his company. Next two speakers covered the issues of environmental technologies implemented in manufacturing process both of traditional gasoline and diesel oil and of biofuels. Arval Polska CEO, on the other hand, outlined the forecasts for implementing environmentally friendly solutions for fleet policies, using his company as an example

The whole meeting was presided by Włodzimierz Zientarski – an automotive editor – who concluded the event with urging the guests to reconsider the subjects raised during the conference that can be summed up as the need for all the fleet market and – more broadly – automotive market players to think and act in environmentally friendly ways. We also encourage you to get acquainted with results of the CVO Barometer 2008 research panel that were presented during the conference.

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