Cumbrian haulage businesses and road fleet operators have been offered the opportunity to cut fuel bills and reduce environmental impact.

SP Training, a Carlisle-based training specialist, has launched a new funded course aimed at helping logistics companies decrease fuel and energy use, enhance road safety, and cut scope 3 emissions.

The course, aimed at driver training instructors and assessors, will provide them with the skills to help fleet drivers reduce fuel consumption, extend vehicle range, avoid incidents, reduce fatigue, and lower their carbon footprint.

SP Training has been granted funds to provide 40 free places on the three-day Low Carbon Instructor course.

This is available to instructors and assessors from any company with an operational base in Cumbria.

SP Training chairman Robin Brown said: "The benefits of this course are immense.

"Drivers play a critical role in a vehicle’s fuel and energy use and a reduction in fuel use of an average of five per cent represents a massive cost saving to hauliers and large fleet operators.

"For hybrid and electric vehicles, it will teach drivers how to extend the range so they can go further without recharging, saving carbon and downtime to recharge."

Initially developed for large vehicles, the training applies to all types of fleet vehicles from 44-tonne HGVs to PCVs and fleet cars.

The qualification is certified by Skills for Logistics and is recognised as CPD (Continuing Professional Development) for existing instructors.

National companies including Co-op, Yodel, and Evri have already taken up the new course for their instructors.

Geof Armstrong, vice chairman at Cumbrian logistics operator Wm Armstrong Group, said: "As a business, we are constantly looking at ways to cut our emissions and our environmental impact.

"A course which helps us to achieve those aims while also reducing our fuel usage is an attractive proposition for any business with a road fleet.

"Increasingly, our customers want to know about our sustainability strategy and how we can help cut the scope 3 emissions associated with their deliveries, so if we can train our drivers to be more environmentally efficient it is a real business boost for us."

SP Training has been helping businesses to drive down operating costs through staff development for more than 20 years.

For more information about the course, email bookings@sptraininguk.co.uk.

Training programmes support positive business cultural development and can be intelligently targeted at key business objectives such as fuel saving, accident reduction, or staff upskilling to ensure businesses get a maximum return on their training investment.