A total of 70 new vehicles have been rolled out across the South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust area following a £2.8m investment secured by the Transport Department to purchase the vehicles, including an electric ‘pool’ fleet of cars for community based staff, which is a first within a Health & Social Care Trust in Northern Ireland.
This additional investment has facilitated the replacement of 30% of the total fleet with a range of new and replacement vehicles being purchased, including coaches, minibuses, cars and commercial vehicles. The total number of vehicles within the Trust fleet now stands at 215. With an impressive 1,662,000 miles travelled during 2021/2022 and to reduce the carbon footprint within the Trust, the team decided to purchase five electric zero emission vehicles to add to the Trust’s ‘pool’ fleet to assist with various community projects.
Chief Executive, Roisin Coulter was presented with the keys to the new vehicles and said, “The introduction of the new vehicle fleet is very much welcomed, in particular the electric vehicles, as this will assist our community colleagues and provide transport to those delivering vital services to the most vulnerable in the community.”
Service Lead for Transport, Richard Walker said, “It is vital that our fleet is kept up-to-date and this funding, for which we are very grateful, has ensured that our Trust has the most modern and fuel efficient fleet.”