Munuhwa et al. (2020:166) reiterate that research in GFM has significantly expanded over the past few decades in connection to the growing importance of the environmental components in the management of supply chains. Green fleet management includes different approaches by which companies work with their suppliers and/or customers in order to improve the environmental performance of their operations. While this is the case, there is not an established definition of GFM initiatives in the current literature, and as indicated by Sarkis (2009), the boundary of GFM is strictly dependent on the type and scope of initiatives adopted by companies participating in supply chain processes (Sarkis 2009:20). An attempt to define green transport was made by Ahmed and Monem (2020:20) who viewed it as any form of transportation that takes humanity into account and offers affordable, safe and different types of transport modes. Moreover, it depends on renewable or regenerated energy rather than fossil fuels and has a low impact on the environment. Ideally, green fleet issues at a company level must be enshrined within a fleet management policy or at least in green fleet action plan. A GFM policy or strategy is premised on three key types of measures as shown in Table 2.

In 1994, Elkington coined the triple Bottom Line Model, which localised the concept of sustainable development at the individual firm level. The model calls for companies to strike a balance between social, economic and environmental benefits in order to realise sustainable development goals. Bloemhof (2005:12) agrees with this and argues that the triple bottom line is specifically focused within the forward logistics of a logistics chain, that is, from producer to consumer, and is therefore linked with the concept of green logistics. According to Porter and Kramer (2006:7–10), establishing social and environmental initiatives can allow managers to implement a strong strategic value. The Triple Bottom Line model is a useful tool to understand the goals of sustainable development.

According to the triple bottom line theory, a sustainable company is one that accomplishes a balance between the socio-economic and environmental factors. However, there is a trade-off between these three factors. An environmentally friendly decision may not always be the most economically viable option in the short run.

This study is explorative in nature as it sought to examine the drivers of and barriers to effective GFM practices. Exploratory studies are defined as ‘loose structures with the objective of discovering future research tasks’ (Cooper & Schindler 2008:143). In order to achieve this, the study sought to answer the following five key research questions:

In this endeavour, the study adopted a qualitative research paradigm based on a case study of three companies within the funeral assurance sector. The study applied a purposive sampling strategy based on some pre-defined selection criteria: firstly, the criteria revolved around those players (firms) within the funeral assurance sector with a sizeable fleet, more than 50 operational pools of vehicles; secondly, a wide kilometre coverage throughout the country, more than 100 000 km combined mileage per year; and, thirdly, those with similar fleet management practices: fleet acquisition, maintenance and disposal. After subjecting all the companies within the funeral assurance sector, Table 3 shows ‘the qualifying’ study cases.

After the selection of the three study organisations, the next step involved the sample size determination for conducting semi-structured interviews. As the researchers could not establish the exact number of key informants within the organisational structures of the three companies, they applied a snowballing sampling strategy wherein they would identify one key informant who would respond to the semi-structured interview guide and direct the researchers to the next person and so on, until a point (data saturation) was reached having similar responses. Through this snowball technique, the researchers managed to conveniently engage 70 interviewees from the three organisations. In depth face-to-face oral interviews enabled the researchers to gather rich exhaustive primary data and unpacking hidden facts about GFM within the funeral assurance sector.

Interview booking arrangements were made with top-, middle- and lower-level managers and the workshop workers. The average duration of the interviews was 30 min. The researchers proceeded with the interviews with fleet managers, operations managers and finance managers. Shop floor workers also participated in this study, who include workshop supervisors, workshop technicians, transport or dispatch clerks, transport officers, transport administrators and buyer or procurement officers and drivers. Online interviews were conducted with some interviewees who could not be reached physically.

Critical questions asked during the interviews revolved around whether the companies had GFM policies in place and the extent to which they would adhere to the provisions of their own policies regarding GFM. Furthermore, the different levels of management were asked to rate the different issues they consider critical during fleet acquisition, maintenance and disposal. The idea with such a question was to determine the extent of environmental preservation prioritisation in fleet management. Table 4 presents a summary of key interview questions asked.

The collected data were then cleaned removing unnecessary or repetitive statements and then sorted this data into some clusters (themes). Thematic and narrative analysis was conducted with the aid of ATLAS.ti software to organise the data into themes for interpretation and drawing meaningful insights.

Tannenbaum, Greaves and Graham (2016) explain that the individual differences on specific issues like age, education, family background or culture have a bearing on views on critical issues. Consequently, it became important in this study to engage many different groups of people by gender, education and work experience. The socio-economic characteristics of the respondents are as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2 shows that there are more male workers than their female counterparts especially within the companies’ transport departments. This is probably because of the nature of transport operations, where funeral assurance services involve hard labour and sometimes long working hours, which most women, because of the patriarchal societal norms, cannot accept. For example, the drivers for hearses and buses may drive very long distances, in difficult terrain for long hours. Similarly, automobile technicians and motor mechanics are involved in heavy load lifting and sometimes long working hours in difficult situations.

In terms of educational qualifications, Figure 2 shows that the entire participants hold a high school qualification. The shop floor workers, which include the technicians, drivers, vehicle mechanics and other ancillary staff members, have their education as follows: 16% with ordinary level education, 21% with certificates, 34% with diplomas, 18% with undergraduate degrees and the remaining 11% with postgraduate degrees. Further, 45% of management members held diploma certificates, 40% held undergraduate degrees and 15% held postgraduate degrees. This suggests that all the members who participated in the study are literate and would reasonably respond to the questions. Tannenbaum et al. (2016) charge that experience is almost everything as it hones one’s skills and knowledge in whatever capacity. This study extracted the work experience of the participants as a way of validating the responses to the questions asked. In the management, 53% have been within their organisation for a period of 6–10 years, followed by 37% with 0-5 years, 5% with 11–15 years and 5% with more than 15 years of experience. In the shop floor workers category, 65% have been within their organisation for a period of 6–10 years and the remaining 37% for a period of 0–5 years.

An interrogation was made on the three companies regarding the extent to which they consider environmental consciousness when making a fleet acquisition or fleet replacement decision. In this study, the researchers identified the major attributes considered when making vehicle acquisition decisions and the aggregated results are shown in Figure 4.

The results show that the majority of participants (50%) believe that operational needs are a priority when purchasing vehicles, followed by financial capabilities (30%), redundancy (10%) and environmental regulations (10%). This is because of the nature of vehicles required in the funeral assurance business; hence, there is a need to consider the operational characteristics of the vehicles; for example, most of the vehicles must be off-road as they navigate difficult and rugged terrains in the rural areas. After selecting a vehicle, which suits the purpose, then there is consideration of the financial capabilities of the organisation to buy the vehicle. Thus, the first step is to identify a vehicle, which can satisfy the required tasks, and then consider the financial resources available to meet the cost of acquisition. Most importantly, from the results, it is evident that the environmental considerations are peripheral in vehicle acquisition decisions. There is little consideration of the environmental issues like the pollution levels.

Although the companies indicated that they do not have explicit policy frameworks on greening their fleet, they, however, consider the engine size of the vehicle and the type of fuel used. There was an indication that all the studied entities preferred diesel-powered vehicles over petrol-powered ones. Diesel-powered vehicles inevitably lead to increased air pollution. They also consider small engine capacity with reduced fuel consumption; this in turn results in less operational costs. Another important aspect is that the companies consider vehicle age when making vehicle acquisition decisions, generally companies prefer new vehicles over pre-owned ones because of the longer distances travelled in the provision of their services. There was a consensus among the three companies that older vehicle fleet harms the environment. Newer vehicles are fuel efficient and can reduce the carbon emissions. However, small players in the funeral assurance sector are dependent on pre-owned vehicles because of the high costs of new vehicles. This finding resonates well with other studies such as those by Alahgesan and Daud (2019), Lah (2012) and Isaksson (2014) who found that the cost of vehicle acquisition inhibits companies to focus on GFM investments, and the benefits to the environment arising from vehicle acquisition decisions are not deliberate but coincidental.

As suggested by Jabali and Erdogan (2015), fleet operation involves the daily efficient utilisation of the entire fleet through the reduction of kilometres travelled. Poor fleet operation decisions are associated with high GHG emissions, and it is now important for any fleet operator to take responsible steps in the reduction of such emissions. Poorly managed fleet operations result in misuse of vehicles, fuel and increased overtime overheads that negatively affect the environment. Although some of the measures to reduce GHGs in fleet operations are done to minimise operational costs, they also seek to promote sustainability. These measures are internal control mechanism used to monitor fleet usage and assist decision making. Hindsight of this fact, the study sought to understand the fleet usage monitoring systems used by companies in the funeral assurance sector. The measures include the monitoring of driver behaviour and fuel usage among other measures being employed in fleet management.

The study established that fleet managers from the three companies have put in place measures to deal with mileage and fuel consumption. By making sure that mileage for the entire fleet is under check, it means the amount of fuel consumed is also under control. This also means reduced GHG emissions. All the companies testified that they have set their vehicle’s speeds to a maximum of 100 km/h. This measure on the top of achieving safety from the travellers is also meant to curb excessive fuel consumption as has been established by specialists that vehicles consume more fuel when in high speeds. The evaluation of the vehicle-mileage control mechanism is as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5 shows that the majority (43%) of respondents believe that the fuel-mileage control mechanism in the organisations is fair followed by those who think they are good (41%), poor (8%), very good (5%) and not available (3%). The results show that generally the participants believe that the mechanisms used in the mileage-fuel control mechanism are workable (fair, good and very good). This is a testimony confirmed by the management during the interviews. In one of the interviews, one official from Company B said:

The above excerpt confirms that the companies have put in place mechanisms to monitor and control the vehicle use, which implicitly reduce fuel consumption and vehicle miles travelled. This finding concurs with the finding by Rashid and Lugaric (2018) who noted that effective use of telematics in fuel management results in cost savings of about 10%. Green fleet management advocates for driver behaviour monitoring and control as a way of reducing fuel consumption. However, it was noted with concern that the insufficient utilization of telematics at Company C was provided an opportunity for vehicle abuse by unscrupulous drivers.

The GFM practices advocate for predictive vehicle maintenance to avoid the negative environmental and safety implications associated with poor vehicle maintenance. Routine vehicle maintenance and repair ensure that the fleet is roadworthy with minimum negative environmental impacts, less safety risks and low operational costs especially on fuel and oil consumption. In the interest of an evaluation of the current fleet management practices in line with GFM, it became necessary to understand the maintenance and servicing routines of the companies within the funeral assurance sector. The first aspect looked into is the priorities of the funeral assurance companies when planning and/or scheduling vehicles for maintenance or servicing. The results on this variable are shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6 shows that the funeral assurance companies, in that order, prioritise cost, safety, corporate image, life span and environmental issues when planning for vehicle maintenance. On cost, 88% of the respondents indicated that cost is a major determinant for decision on vehicle routine maintenance, and only 20% viewed it not as a priority. This is so because vehicle servicing has a serious cost implication on the fleet operations. Because of the nature of the operations and the distances travelled in the funeral assurance sector, vehicle servicing imposes a serious cost on the fleet operations. One official at Company A pointed out that adhering to the manufacturer’s recommendations on vehicle servicing and maintenance is very expensive as it may take only 2 weeks to reach the recommended mileage for vehicle servicing – for example, 5000 km for light motor vehicles and 10 000 km for other vehicles. Furthermore, the organisations have shifted the vehicle servicing routines from the manufacturer’s specifications; for example, Company A shifted from the recommended 5000 km – 10 000 km for light motor vehicles and 10 000 km – 15 000 km for other vehicles as a strategy of reducing maintenance costs. This goes against GFM practices, which call for scheduled maintenance as prescribed by the vehicle manufacturer.

Another priority area is safety. Of the respondents, 83% chose safety as a priority and only 17% thought it was not a priority. The results indicate that safety is a critical component for the companies. This is also in line with the ethos of GFM, which puts emphasis on safety, health and environment. The fleet managers believe that faulty vehicles are a hazard to the drivers and those carried in the vehicle – hence the need to protect them. From the explanations given during interviews, it came out that safety measures are tied onto good corporate image. The funeral assurance sector is very competitive, and hence the organisations involved seek to provide top-notch services. Hence, transportation forms part and parcel of the corporate image building and thus there is the need to routinely service and maintain vehicles so that they could be reliable, safe and convenient in discharging their funeral assistance services. It is against this backdrop that firms would want to service their vehicles to avoid a bad image, which is associated with frequent breakdowns, smoking vehicles and high frequency of accidents among other negative environmental externalities arising from sub-serviced vehicles. In this study, it became important to assess the vehicle servicing and maintenance routines of the organisations within the funeral assurance sector.

Figure 7 shows that the bulk of the light motor vehicles are serviced at 10 000 km as pointed by 58% of the respondents and only a few (43%) on the recommended 5000 km. Medium-sized trucks are mostly serviced at 10 000 km and a few at 15 000 km, and the heavy vehicles at 10 000 km and a few at 15 000 km. Although the servicing routines for medium and heavy vehicles are commendable, there is a worry on the light motor vehicles, which are usually serviced at double the recommended mileage. Again, this confirms the assertions by the management that the cost implication plus the pressure (multiple deaths at the same time with clients scattered all over the country) which this sector sometimes endures may lead to overdue servicing. The impact of delayed servicing of vehicles includes increased carbon emissions because of a variety of reasons known by the specialist in engine emission.

The fleet disposal stage is the last and critical stage of the lifecycle of vehicle. It is the assessment that the vehicle has reached the end of its operational or contractual cycle (Redemer 2016). The study sought to understand the disposal policies of the funeral assurance companies picking the important considerations when disposing any vehicles from the fleet; the results are presented in Figure 8.

The vehicle maintenance cost was ranked first across the studied entities, with 70% of the respondents in agreement and only 30% of respondents think otherwise. This view is in line with the total cost analysis concept where fleet managers compare the cost of operating, maintaining and repairing the vehicle with the residual value of the vehicle to arrive at a decision. Consequent to this, high costs of maintenance usually because of vehicle age may result in the disposal of a vehicle because it ceases to make economic sense to own it. The vehicle age was ranked second, with the majority of respondents (40%) believing that the vehicle age is the most important factor in vehicle disposal, followed by 30% who believed it is important, 10% who stated it is moderate and the remaining 10% believing that it is unimportant. As the vehicle age increases, the cost of running and maintaining that particular vehicle increases (Makan & Heyns 2018). The results presented show that although the age of a vehicle is an important consideration in crafting vehicle disposal policies, the funeral assurance companies are not adhering to their disposal policies.

This Act establishes the emission standards (including motor vehicles), the criteria and guidelines for air pollution control for mobile sources and the guidelines to minimise emissions of GHG. For example, Section 63(2) of this Act, on air quality standards, posits that any person who emits any substances, which cause air pollution in contravention of emission standards established under this Act, shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine and/or imprisonment.

Further, Section 68(1) states that:

As such, any transport operator who pollutes the environment by contravening the emission standards commits an offence. The provisions in this Act directly impact the vehicle acquisition decisions in that the acquirer must buy vehicles, which do not exceed the statutory emission thresholds, both for diesel and petrol engines. Further, it also imposes a responsibility on the fleet managers, during the operation of the fleet, to ensure that all the vehicles are serviced and maintained to operate within the permitted emission levels. There is a push for fleet managers to monitor the emission levels of their vehicles (to avoid being penalised) and engage in predictive fleet maintenance to ensure that all the vehicles are not emitting more than the prescribed emission levels. This has the potential to reduce greenhouse gases from the fleet. By implication, the Act also affects the vehicle disposal policy of any transport operator.

The Atmospheric Pollution Control Regulations, 2009 (Statutory Instrument 72 of 2009) prescribes motor vehicle emission standards in the form of maximum permissible discharge for a particular compound and provides the enforcement mechanisms of the standards. In Section 5(1), the regulations say an inspector may stop any vehicle to inspect and test, whether on a road or elsewhere, in order to ascertain whether or not the vehicle complies with the emission standards. Section 5(3) goes on to point out that if a motor vehicle does not comply with the emission standards, an inspector may, by written notice given to the driver or owner of the vehicle, direct that the vehicle shall not be used on any road or shall be used subject to conditions specified in the notice. The emission standards are as presented in Table 5 for the major polluting elements and these are: Carbon Monoxide, (CO), Lead, (Pb), Nitrous Oxide, (NO), Sulphur Dioxide, (SO₂) and Ozone, (O₃).

The minimum emission limit values shown in Table 5 are also applicable to imported vehicles. According to the Environmental Management Agency, the vehicle inspection and monitoring programme has been in place since 2009 for in-service vehicles. The emission testing is supposed to be conducted at the point of entry with pre-inspection certificate being issued before export. However, it is not clear if all the imported vehicles have those pre-inspection certificates. Further, Section 22 of the regulations prescribes that carbon tax shall be charged per fuel type and payable to the agency at port of entry for imported fuels or at the point of production and distribution for fuels not imported. Carbon tax rates are prescribed in the seventh schedule of the Act. The impact of this tax is to try and internalise the cost of the negative externalities generated by vehicle users based on the user-pay principle.

This is an Act to provide for the imposition, collection and management of customs, excise and other duties, regulating, controlling and prohibiting of imports and exports, the conclusion of customs and trade agreements with other countries and forfeitures and for other matters connected therewith. This legislation has an impact on vehicle acquisition with the possibilities of entrenching sustainable practices in vehicle selection and procurement. Of importance to sustainable vehicle acquisition, this Act imposes customs duty on imported fuel (diesel and unleaded petrol) with the impact of increasing the price of fuel. The resultant effect is to compel the acquisition of fuel-efficient vehicles, preferably with smaller engines to effectively manage the fuel economy during operations of the fleet. The high cost of fuel instils discipline in fleet management and eventually achieving some of the GFM practices. The high cost of fuel also may lead to organisations managing driver behaviour on fuel consumption, which on top of managing the running cost of the vehicle also reduces the carbon footprint.

Section 172 of the Act further provides for charging of a special excise duty on second-hand goods. This duty is charged on the value of used motor vehicles sold, transferred or otherwise disposed of to any person inland. The rate of special excise duty applicable depends on the engine capacity and year of manufacture of a vehicle. The excise duty increases as the engine size and the number of years increase. Further, this Act, in Section 97, provides for charging surtax on second-hand light passenger motor vehicles. Surtax is charged on imported second-hand light vehicles (that are more than 5 years old at the time of importation).

Vehicles with larger engine capacities attract higher customs duty. The customs dusty inclusive of the surtax is at 86% for < 1500 cc engine sizes and 96% for > 1500 cc engine size. The rationale is to discourage the importation of used and higher engine capacity vehicles. Consequently, the provisions have an influence when an organisation is making vehicle purchasing decisions.

This legislation gave rise to fuel quality regulations: the Petroleum (fuel quality) Regulations, 2013 and Petroleum (Mandatory Blending of Anhydrous Fuel Ethanol with Unleaded Petrol) Regulations, 2013. These have a bearing on the fuel quality being used in Zimbabwe, and consequently on the sustainable fleet management. Both regulations were promulgated in terms of Section 37(1) of the Petroleum Act [Chapter 13:22]. The Petroleum (fuel quality) Regulations, 2013 are meant to establish fuel quality standards for fuel used by consumers in Zimbabwe. Regulations apply to fuel importers, fuel blenders, fuel wholesalers, fuel retailers and fuel producers. The fuel quality standards prohibit a petroleum licensee from importing or selling specified petroleum products unless they meet the prescribed quality standards. Furthermore, the standards prohibit the importation, offering for sale of one grade of automobile fuel as if it was another grade. The standards prohibit the importation of any blend or mixture of different automobile fuels, prohibit importation of unleaded petrol with an oxygenate content of +0.2% and require blending of ethanol and unleaded petrol to be undertaken at a licensed blending site. Finally, the ethanol for purposes of blending should be sorely procured from a locally licensed producer.

Petroleum (Mandatory Blending of Anhydrous Fuel Ethanol with Unleaded Petrol) Regulations, 2013 (S1 17/2013) are meant to reduce carbon monoxide emissions and to increase the efficiency of fuel use in automobiles. The regulations illegalise the sale of unleaded petrol in the country. Statutory Instrument 17 of 2013 says that mandatory blending is required for unleaded petrol imported into Zimbabwe with anhydrous ethanol. It goes further to prohibit any procurement licensee or wholesale licensee to sell unleaded petrol unless the unleaded petrol is blended with a prescribed amount of locally produced anhydrous ethanol (now, ethanol blend grade E20). The Statutory Instrument also allows only a licensed ethanol blender to blend anhydrous ethanol with unleaded petrol. The quality control mechanisms require that every licensed ethanol producer has to furnish a blender with a quality assurance certificate for every batch supplied.

As pointed out by Hogarth et al (2015), fuel quality matters in the reduction of GHG and similarly the Petroleum Act [Chapter 13:22] has an impact on the GFM through the fuel quality regulations. Important to note is the fact that it makes it mandatory for petrol blending and ethanol blending creates a mix that releases fewer emissions into the environment and is considered cleaner in the future. Furthermore, this has a positive environmental effect given that ethanol is a renewable and domestically produced transportation fuel. This also reduces the carbon footprint in the transportation of the fuel itself. Whether used in low-level blends, ethanol helps reduce emissions. The carbon dioxide captured when the feedstock crops are grown to produce ethanol offsets the carbon dioxide released by a vehicle. This differs from gasoline and diesel, which are refined from petroleum extracted from the earth. No emissions are offset when these petroleum products are burnt. According to EEA (2019), on a life cycle analysis basis, GHG emissions are reduced on average by 34% with ethanol from dry mills and range between 88% and 108% with ethanol from cellulosic feedstock depending on feedstock type as compared to gasoline and diesel production and use. Thus, the mandatory fuel blending is ideal in terms of environmental protection.

An analysis of the institutional frameworks governing the adoption and practice of environmental sustainability shows that Zimbabwe has some Acts of parliament that deal with GFM. However, there is a paucity in terms of enforcing these Acts and there are two explanations for this. The first reason is that there is no capacity, both financially and technically, to monitor the vehicle emissions and enforce the law. Another critical policy issue to note is that Zimbabwe does not have policy instruments to encourage or incentivise the acquisition of green fleet. The existing legislation is from a ‘push’ side as opposed to it being on a ‘pull’ side. This is in line with the assertions made by Mbandi et al. (2019) who pointed out that there is a need to adopt purchasing rules that favour alternative fuels and advanced vehicle technologies.

At organisational level, fleet management operations (fleet acquisition, maintenance and disposal) were taken with less attention to environmental considerations and more on cost reduction. It is obvious that the cost informs much of the business decisions; hence, anything that reduces the cost of the business is the most welcome. In fleet acquisition, the study established that the age of a car, the cost, operational characteristics, the type of transmission (manual or automatic), the type of fuel used and engine size are considered. In fleet operations, maintenance is influenced by the manufacture’s recommendations, costs and operational condition of the vehicle. Disposal is also influenced by cost, age of the vehicle and the condition of the vehicle. All of these considerations, at some point, achieve both economic and environmental objectives, therefore achieving a clean transport system in the funeral assurance sector.