At this time of year, you’ll probably read a lot of predictions about how ultra-low emission vehicles and car-sharing are one of the big trends to look out for in the next five years.

Well, I’ll let you into a little secret – it’s not five years away, it’s happening right now.

So says Nick Butler, head of corporate mobility at Alphabet which includes the AlphaCity car-sharing scheme.

He said: “From Aberdeen to Portsmouth, up and down the UK in 2016 Alphabet corporate and public sector customers drove over a million miles in shared use AlphaCity vehicles. No keys to worry about, with vehicles accessed 24/7 via a technology platform that involves online booking and an RFID card with a PIN code.

“So with this in mind, I think we’ll see 2017 continuing the trend we’ve seen over the past 12 months – that more and more organisations are turning to car sharing to solve their specific mobility challenges.

“Whether it’s the increasingly thorny issue of grey fleet, spiralling taxi and travel costs or an under-used, hard-to-manage ‘car pool’, car sharing technology is the smarter, more efficient and cost effective alternative.

“Feedback from employees who don’t have access to a company car tell us they love the business-equipped, low or even zero emission vehicles available to them on demand.

“My personal prediction? That non-company car eligible employees will start seeing vehicles as just another ‘facility’ provided on demand for business purposes – much like a phone or meeting room.

“Like a meeting room they need to look after it for their colleagues who next use it (and if they don’t it’s all trackable).

“It needs organisations to change employee behaviour and attitudes to do something different – towards ‘self-service’ mobility rather than ‘spoon-fed’ – but there are huge rewards for employers and employees who get on board with this approach and technology.

“Big changes to how we move employees around are already here and are set to continue; so, you can either put your head in the sand or see for yourself what the excitement is all about.”