Green & safety to grow in importance in Turkey?

The impact of Corporate Social Responsibility in many Western countries, has led to far more importance being attached by fleet managers to the topics of green and safety. Many companies see ‘greening’ the fleet as an essential part of an overall policy of environmental friendliness. This is seen to be good for the environment and for the company’s image. DRD puts this very clearly, saying that it would be wrong for fleet managers to consider that the beneficiary of a car is only the driver – it is mainly the company.
 
And keeping drivers safe is a duty. Within this context, DRD says that safe driving programmes are growing among fleet owners, because of the high ratio of traffic accidents in Turkey.  
DRD also explained that in Turkey, there is not yet a high degree of demand for ‘green’ cars. In 2016, it says, there has been a limited demand for green cars. It had thought, however, that new SCT regulation would tend to encourage customers to become greener. And Jaguar Land Rover too, believes that this issue will become more important if the taxation system is regulated according to exhaust emissions.
Mercedes-Benz, through its local operation, says that predominantly, it observes an increase in interest of the two issues area – once again especially among multinational companies with global fleet management philosophies. Turkish affiliates are willingly adopting awareness in this area and swiftly integrating green and safety issues into their fleets, the company believes. But the German company is also observing that this is not only limited to multinational companies: local large companies and even SMEs have also started to adopt sensitivities in these areas.
 
The overall picture, then, is of a market which is coming into line with the major markets of the West, and is being influence by having Western companies highly active within the territory, on both the supply and client sides.
As is the case in other markets, there appears to be a difference between what large companies do, and what smaller ones do. The larger ones often operate in many territories, and tend to import best practice from one to another. Smaller companies often just do what they have always done. This is borne out by the experience of Opel, which says that the importance of CO2 levels and safety is growing each year especially in multinational companies. However, on the SME side CO2 is still not a factor for decision making.
(Image: Hürriyet Daily News)