YORK'S Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has signed a deal with car rental company Enterprise in a bid cut emissions and bring down travel costs.

The Trust’s York-based staff previously used their own cars to travel for business and reclaimed mileage expenses - the ‘grey fleet’ - but will now use one of ten Enterprise CarShare vehicles based at York Hospital for short business trips in and around the area.

Richard Vincent, assistant director of estates and facilities at the Trust, said: "The system was simple to introduce as it not only incorporates vehicle provision but also the administration for registering users and booking the cars.

“Using Enterprise is also far more cost-effective than the grey fleet and means we’re no longer paying out thousands of pounds in mileage reimbursement."

All staff who would otherwise use their own vehicle or public transport to travel on Trust business are eligible to register for the Enterprise pool cars. The pilot programme is initially targeting selected employees at York Hospital and the plan is to expand car sharing and rental within the hospital and to other Trust hospitals.