Green Policies

Our Environmental Policy

Qdell and LHR Express Cars Limited are fully committed to environmental awareness and the need to maintain the highest levels of environmental responsibility within our organization. We aim through staff awareness and strict environmental management systems to implement and maintain procedures demonstrating dedication to environmental issues. We are working towards the BS EN ISO 14001:2004 accreditation.

• In order to achieve this accreditation it is imperative that we incorporate the following into our everyday business policies.
• Regularly assessing the environment effects of our activities
• Training employees in environmental issues
• Minimise the production of wastage
• Minimise energy wastage
• Promote the use of recyclable or renewable materials
• Reduce and/or limit production of pollutants
• Control noise emissions

We are concentrating on the following areas:-

• Fleet management
• Conservation of fossil fuels
• Maximise use of alternative fuels
• Using the best vehicles or each type of journey

Energy

• Best practices in building design and construction
• Lighting, heating, air conditioning and ventilation
• Systems Computer and peripherals to be switched of at the end of the working day to ensure security and energy consumption.
• Only servers, network enabling apparatus and fax machines to remain on at all times.

Purchasing

• Promote the use of environmentally friendly products wherever possible
• Making suppliers aware of our environmental concerns
• Attempting to influence environmental policy of suppliers wherever possible

Hybrid Vehicles

Hybrid vehicles as most of you are aware use a combination of two power sources. Electric motors and petrol combustion engines. Batteries are charged to run an electric motor generally most efficient when travelling at low speed or in traffic. When higher speeds or more power is required the petrol engine cuts in. We have been running trials on some of the hybrid cars currently available we have looked at the Toyota Prius, the Honda and the Lexus hybrid.

Here's some of our feedback:-

The Honda in my opinion is by far the nicer vehicle, giving a much better ride. There is more width for the passengers and has slightly better luggage space. The engine however, is permanently switched on even when in park (except when the brake in on at junctions). The Toyota spends longer time on the battery but still needs the petrol engine to accelerate. I feel that both cars would be good round town but were only doing about 35 mpg round the airport where I would expect a diesel vehicle of the same size to return over 50mpg. Obviously more investigation must be made in the comparison between economy and emissions. The Toyota Prius is visibly the more "environmentally friendly" vehicle and probably the better option, however considerations must be made regarding economy and size when doing a lot of airport work.

We have leased a Toyota which has had some good feedback from passengers especially on local journeys.

Biodiesel

We have also been in discussions with several suppliers and have been looking at biodiesel. Bio fuels are an easy option for us as the majority of our vehicles are diesel. They are made from either rape seed oil or recycled vegetable oil. After taking into consideration the producers of rape seed fuel (some being disruptable) we have decided to source our biodiesel from Enfuels which uses used vegetable oil.

Biodiesel is easy to use and required no engine modification and can be mixed in varying quantities with mineral diesel. Using used vegetable oil as a raw material to manufacture biodiesel reduces the need for the disposal of these oils.

We all understand that crude oil will run out in the future, Biodiesel is 100% renewable and the crops are already being grown in this country, keeping our fuel buying at home, which also helps our trade deficit and creates jobs in the UK.

Biodiesel has better ignition and combustion characteristics due to a high cetane index, which allows the engine to move smoothly. It has excellent lubricity which improves engine wear. It has excellent cleaning properties and high blends will loosen and dissolve accumulated sediment left in diesel fuel tanks.

Biodiesel is non flammable and in contrast to mineral diesel is not explosive. It is non toxic and is a more environmentally friendly fuel to store. Biodiesel emissions show decreased levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and nitrated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons which have been identified as potential cancer causing compounds.

Biodiesel is free of sulphur and therefore does not produce any sulphur dioxide which is considered to be one of the main causes of acid rain

Biodiesel Blends and Standards

Considerations must be made on where we buy our biodiesel, we need to ensure that we only buy from countries who are not cutting down trees to plant rape seed fields. We will only be buying the best quality biodiesel.

Most of the world uses a system know as the "BD" factor to state the amount of biodiesel in any fuel mix, e.g. 20% biodiesel is labelled B20, pure biodiesel would be known as B100. Using 5% biodiesel with a 95% mineral diesel is fully accepted within the EN590 diesel specification and ….

• No modification required to your vehicle
• Produced from renewable resources
• Better for the environment
• Biodegradable and non toxic
• Better combustion, means a smoother running engine
• Comparable fuel economy, performance and pricing
• Can be mixed with petroleum diesel in any ratio
• Non explosive
• Less wear and tear on engines = less repairs

Qdell Takes the Initiative

We have been told from several reliable sources that we are so far, the only private hire company who has been in contact with government bodies or the PCO with regards to alternative fuels and vehicle emissions. Although our competitors might claim to be green we seem to be the only company who actually want to find out the real benefits and not just going through the motions for appearances sake.

A consultant with both the Energy Savings Trust and BAA has put us forward for The Cleaner Vehicles Award. He feels with all of our proactive efforts that we should be awarded the Diamond category as recognition for all our hard work. We are awaiting confirmation of which award we will be getting and as soon as this is known we will post more information here.

We have been advised by the London Borough of Hillingdon, that using biodiesel may invalidate some of the manufacturers warranties on vehicles. All of our company owned vehicles are running on biodiesel and have been for some time without any incidents. We are currently talking to vehicle manufacturers for approval, at present biodiesel does not effect warranties on these vehicles in Europe and the United States.