Scania, Nestlé, UPS and Route Monkey have signed up to a new international partnership focused on tackling road freight emissions.
Launched at last month’s COP21 climate change forum in Paris The Low Carbon Technology Partnership aims to explore the “currently untapped and unmapped potential” for reducing emissions through better fleet optimisation and collaboration between road freight operators. It will attempt to achieve a 48% drop in absolute emissions between 2010 and 2050.
The partnership, led by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, will see companies developing a series of emission-reduction programmes during 2016.
This will be followed by real-world testing of the programmes in 2017 and 2018.
Ideas that are being explored include improving the accessibility of the latest fleet optimisation tools to SME operators, co-optimisation of multiple fleet movements through a common IT platform, and the sharing of assets such as distribution centres and fleet vehicles.
“Digitalisation will provide road haulage and transport buyers with a strong tool to take control of the entire logistic chain in order to optimise transport flows,” said Urban Wästljung, senior adviser at Scania.
“Connectivity, in combination with new vehicle technology and renewable energy, is a game changer in the transition to a sustainable transport system,” he added.
