When I was last in the radio studio, on 15th September, I was talking to Gary Rose of Planet Leasing. Gary has been on the show before. Back in March, he came in with one of his apprentices, Evie Rodgers, to talk about the apprenticeship scheme and the benefits it was bringing to his company, as well as the two young people they’d taken on.
This time, though, the subject was how a company whose main activity is leasing vehicles handles the issue of the environment. No, I know it doesn’t exactly sound like a match made in heaven – but that was the whole point of the interview.
As the proud daughter of a grease monkey (my Dad spent his entire life with his head in one kind of engine or another – and sometimes got his kids involved as ‘fitter’s mate’!), I like to think of myself as being fairly clued up on cars – but I hadn’t realised that vehicles with CO2 emitions below 100G/km are now exempt from road tax. That’s a significant financial saving for an individual – and it’s even more significant when you apply it to a fleet.
The over-riding message to come out of what Gary had to say was that the line between being environmentally aware as an individual and as a business is artificial. His commitment started at home and it was a perfectly natural progression to take those principles into the office, and then out on to the road.
His company is certainly reaping the benefits, having survived – and thrived – despite the economic climate. They’ve recently moved into new office space – and are looking to employ both their young apprentices on a permanent basis. I’m hoping to get him, and them, into the studio when that happens.
From tomorrow, after a disrupted month, normal service is resumed where the programme is concerned. This week – the almost-birthday of the show (it all started on 30th Sept last year) – I’m going right back to the beginning – literally – with Paul Zipzer of Business Link. We’re talking about the things that every start-up or would-be start-up entrepreneur needs to know.
If you’re in the Basildon & East Thurrock area, you can catch the programme on 97.8 FM. Otherwise, you can listen online at gateway978.com.
If there’s a topic you’d like me to look at on the show, or someone (it could even be yourself) who you think would make a great guest, drop me a line and let me know. I’d love to hear from you.