All Must read articles – Page 5
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CommentaryStarting your carbon reduction plan
Over the past three weeks, we have tried to park the obsession with the search for the holy grail of carbon zero and focus on the steps the industry can take today to decarbonise the commercial vehicle and road freight sector. The more we scratch away at the carbon zero ...
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CommentaryUnderstanding carbon reporting: The second "R" of sustainability
Last week we focused on the first of the “three Rs of sustainability” Record, this week, we’ll shift the attention to Reporting. We’ve touched on emissions reporting previously and while it has still to be made mandatory for all businesses, we are increasingly hearing reports clients are including requests for ...
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CommentaryYou’ve got to measure to manage
Record, Report and Reduce are generally considered to be the three Rs of decarbonisation, we throw in Research to make it four as it underlines what we’re trying to do at Freight Carbon Zero. While the politicians, energy suppliers, infrastructure providers and vehicle manufacturers work out the path to carbon ...
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CommentaryEverything. Everywhere. All at once.
For this week’s commentary, we thought we’d hand the keyboard over to the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and publish his call to action for the world without comment. “The climate time-bomb is ticking. But the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a how-to guide ...
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CommentaryWater is the new oil
As the pendulum of carbon zero energy source appears to be swinging back in the favour of hydrogen (at least measured by the number of recent press announcements) we’ve asked our energy expert Janet Wood to take a look at the production process and most importantly to water, the elixir of life, and the key role it plays in the hydrogen production process.
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CommentaryLet’s not consign biofuels to the scrapheap…
Last week another report was published extolling the virtues of battery electric trucks. While there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that or the findings of the report, there are so many hurdles to cross before we get to this electrified nirvana, that we can’t help thinking we’re missing a few tactical ...
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CommentaryLet’s talk about skills
As it’s National Apprentice Week, let’s talk about skills. The skills the industry is going to need, and the skills it’s not going to need, as we progress to the carbon zero landing point. First, let’s separate skills from resources. The point here is about the skills, the training and ...
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CommentaryProposed weight increases for new technologies
Last week, the Department for Transport (DfT) put out its draft documentation outlining the changes to the Authorized Weight legislation. The new rules will allow additional gross weight capacity for new vehicles with lower emissions than traditional diesel vehicles. On the surface, the proposal looks like a step in the ...
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CommentaryLife in the legacy truck brands?
A recent interview our colleagues at Commercial Motor carried out with the new Managing Director at Scania UK has got us thinking about brand image, identity and differentiation between the truck manufacturers as we shift to a future beyond fossil fuels. The comments in the interview refer to Scania’s mighty ...
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CommentaryAre you making the most of the Capacity Market opportunity?
Mid January will see the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy set out procurement levels for its upcoming Capacity Market (CM) auction, due to start on 10 February. For those not familiar with the CM, it was introduced in 2014 as a way of providing an income stream for ...
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CommentaryLessons to be learned from the electric passenger car backlash
It may be a quiet news week that’s caused it or the mainstream journalists have got bored of espousing their benefits or we may be facing a real backlash. But either way, over the past few days there seems to have been the ripple of a backlash against electric vehicles. ...
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CommentaryDoes the UK 6x2 tractor unit have a place on the road to carbon zero?
For fear of sounding like a broken record coming up with yet another barrier for the industry to overcome on its journey to decarbonisation, we feel we should raise an amber flag on the ubiquitous (in the UK at least) 6x2 tractor unit. We raise this and other points, not ...
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CommentaryOur carbon zero 2023 wish list
It seems like it’s the time of the year for wish lists and new year’s resolutions, so we thought we’d ask our contributors to tell us where they would like to see some focus in the year ahead… Let’s have an open conversation [Andy] – people raising concerns with a ...
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CommentaryPricing changes on the way for connections to the electricity grid
Do you want to get a new connection to the electricity network, or boost an existing connection? You may like to hold back on that until April, because after then the capital charge for the connection will fall away. At the moment, businesses are charged the full cost of new ...
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MT ArticleHow to get extra cash during your teabreak
In the second part of our focus on the power sector, our market expert Janet Wood explores how commercial vehicle and road freight operators could be making money through smart management of battery capacity.
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CommentarySearching for the first mover advantage
Normally, when you’re in an innovation race there should be a first mover advantage – the early bird catches the worm, and all that. And when it comes to the decarbonisation of the commercial vehicle and road freight sector, you would think that those operators who are first to the ...
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CommentaryWhat’s all the fuss about Scope 3 emissions reporting?
We’ve heard a lot of references to Scope 3 emissions in our discussions over the past few weeks. It’s an important regulatory development which all transport operators should have on their radar. We thought we’d kick off with a short explainer. Since April 2019, carbon reporting has been a mandatory ...
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CommentaryLet’s talk about the cost of commercial vehicle decarbonisation
There’s much to be written, and we’ll be writing plenty of it, on the journey to the carbon zero promised land. Much of it from suppliers as we’re bombarded with information as they jostle for position, establishing their credentials and bid to secure their place in the race. There are ...
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CommentaryLegislation will drive industry change
The news last week that all parties of the EU – the Commission, Parliament and Council – have reached an agreement to phase out petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2035 may not cover trucks, but its significance should not be ignored by the truck sector. This is BIG ...
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CommentaryCommercial vehicle operating duty cycles will drive carbon zero fuel choices
To guide some of the thinking and decision-making research we’ve worked with Darren Newman at Low Carbon Truck Consultancy to produce and update a simple summary table on the vehicle and technology choices open to truck operators as they pick their way through the journey to decarbonisation. ...