Diesel has long been the fuel of choice for the logistics – it’s efficient and great strides have been taken with Euro standards to reduce air pollutants. But increasingly, there is pressure to adopt alternative fuels and technologies to also reduce carbon emissions.
Fleet operators are already undertaking a wide range of operations to decarbonise from driver training and aerodynamics to routing and scheduling. Further emission reductions could be made with a switch to greener fuels and technologies. However, it’s difficult to leap into the unknown with alternatives that are much more expensive and a refuelling infrastructure that is limited. Reliability of new technology is also a key concern. Customers want their goods, you can’t afford not to deliver.
Many leading operators have taken the risk and are trialling alternatives such as gas and electric but support and incentives are required from Government to really kick-start the market. That’s why FTA has been campaigning for funding to help industry and is delighted that a new Green Truck Fund of up to £24 million is now available to speed up the adoption of low emission vehicles.
The Office for Low Emission Vehicles and Innovate UK are providing funding of up to £19 million for low emission vehicles and supporting infrastructure. A further £5 million has been made available to also support on-vehicle technology to lower emissions. The funding is available for both HGVs and vans. This supplements a previous Low Carbon HGV Fund which wrapped up this year and put over 300 gas-powered HGVs on the road with supporting infrastructure.
FTA is also urging Government to consider how it can further support industry with grants. These currently exist for the car and van sector and we believe the freight sector would also benefit from them.
Find more information here: Competition brief: low emission freight and logistics trial
#carbon
(The views and opinions expressed by the authors of these blogs are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect those of the Freight Transport Association)
Following customer demand, working time can now be set to “off” for individual core drivers via their driver profile. If you already have permission to amend drivers hours for individual drivers, the permission to amend working time status will also be available to you. If you do not have this permission and need it, please contact tachosales@fta.co.uk to enable it.
This feature will only be available when working time is set on the account and location and will default to on. Working time will be set to “no” as an exception.
**We would advise that you only set the driver to “No” working time if the driver operates under domestic rules only and never comes under EU regulations. If they occasionally do, we would recommend that you continue to have working time analysed**
To set the working time to “No working time” open up the driver profile and click in the adjacent side:
Take a look at our infographic and see how logistics continues delivering the summer.
Sat on centre court at Wimbledon, with strawberries and cream in my hand and the sun shining – if only for an hour – it’s difficult to imagine that the nation is going through times of such uncertainty. Lots of questions to be answered and assurances to be made throughout our industry and…
And then our man came on to court. Huge cheers from the crowd and we’d begun – thoughts of uncertainty soon disappeared. Through all the different walks of life, different opinions and difficult choices over the last few months we were all here for the same reason.
Shoe laces were retied, sports bottles chucked under the chair, towels flung to the ball boy and tennis balls flying around the court I couldn’t help but feel proud that none of this would be happening without the other guys. The guys that you don’t see – but who those in logistics know are always present. The shippers that ensured the fresh fruit was transported at exactly the right climate to cater for the thousands of spectators, the lorry drivers that travelled numerous nights to deliver enough equipment to make the tournament a success and the duty of the operations manager to keep everything on time and deal with any hurdles along the way.
So yes, we have a lot of work to do up ahead to get the big questions answered but for just one day this was certainly my reminder of the impact the logistics industry has on everyone and everything. Days out to tournaments that unite the UK like no other, keeping my family safe and prepared this summer from delivering flip flops to sun lotion to beach towels and allowing me to step away from the stress of daily life with picnic hampers full of fresh produce.
I might work in the logistics industry from 9 – 5 but the logistics industry continues to work for me 24/7.
#deliveringthesummer
(The views and opinions expressed by the authors of these blogs are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect those of the Freight Transport Association)
