In Graz, the largest taxi company is switching its entire fleet from diesel to biodiesel cars. In order to promote biodiesel for others, the taxi filling station is available also for the public.
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 (see also Taxi drivers as advocates for biodiesel). An electric car has been tested within the fleet. Before Trendsetter, however, the company had not tested biodiesel. In order to make the shift from diesel to biodiesel easier, a refuelling 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.
A new biodiesel service station was established for the Taxi 878 taxi fleet and for public users. The emergency backup generator runs quite well with biodiesel. After solving technical problems with the fuel filters, over 25% of the taxi fleet has switched to biodiesel within Trendsetter and it is expected that the target of 60% will be reached in 2006.
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. To support this initiative, an information campaign was planned with Taxi 878 members as the first target group. The campaign addressed subjects such as quality of the biofuel, using the fuel on cold winter days and biodiesel use in general. Other taxi companies in Graz and in the region of Styria will learn from the experiences gained by Taxi 878.
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