Incentives for Energy-efficient Behavior at the Workplace: A Natural Field Experiment on Eco-driving in a Company Fleet

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a highly prevalent goal of public policy in many countries around the world. Convincing people to drive more fuel-efficient ("eco-driving") can contribute substantially to this goal. However, there is a lack of scientific studies on the effects of individual monetary and non-monetary incentives for eco-driving, especially in organizational settings and with regards to demonstrating causality, e.g., by using controlled experiments. We address this gap with a six months long controlled natural field experiment and introduce a monetary and a non-monetary reward for eco-driving to drivers of light commercial vehicles in different branches of a logistics company. Our results show an average reduction of fuel consumption of 5% due to a tangible non-monetary reward and suggest only a small reduction of the average fuel consumption in the equivalent monetary reward treatment. Building on the extant research on psychological determinants of transport behavior and economic incentives, we give possible explanations for the observed behavior and the potential superiority of non-monetary rewards over pure money. Policy implications for private and public actors are discussed.