Trailer height cap would hit John Lewis with £6.2m bill
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CM COVER STORY
justin.stantonfarbi.co.uk DISTRIBUTION COSTS would rise by £.6.2m at John Lewis if the retailer was forced to run trailers limited to a height of 4m.
The proposed height cap was recently announced by the EC, with the UK government pledging to fight the plans (CM 30 September).
Following a request from CM to calculate the impact of lower trailer heights, John Lewis Central Transport fleet engineer Ray Collington estimates the extra mileage for John Lewis would he around 3.2 million miles, while CO2 emissions would rise by more than 3,000 tonnes.
Currently, the John Lewis supply chain operates 40 standard trailers and 160 double-decks. Together they travel a total of 8 mil lion miles per annum (an average of 40,000 miles per trailer). In reality, the double-decks travel further than the standard trailers, but for the sake of this analysis, Collington has worked on the average figure.
The double-decks, travelling 40,000 miles a year at 9.5mpg, use 3,062568 litres of fuel and produce 8,175 tonnes of CO2.
Using the 'three-for-two' rule, 160 double-decks would become 240 standard trailers.Those trailers, trayelling 40,000 miles a year at 10.5mpg, will use 4,156,432 litres of fuel and produce 11,094 tonnes of CO2.
Collington says: "Based on these assumptions, we will travel an extra 3.2 million miles and produce 3,000plus extra tonnes of CO2. In 2009, John Lewis Distribution produced 9,600 tonnes, so an extra 3,000 tonnes equals a 31% increase."
Analysing the impact further, Collington notes that there are 85 tractors and 200 trailers, so the ratio is 2,35 trailers per tractor. If the trailers increase to a total of 280 (the 40 standard trailers plus the 240 extra standard trailers needed to replace the double-decks), John Lewis would need another 37 tractors to maintain that 2.35 ratio.
So the cost impact looks like this: • The additional tractors would cost an extra £720,000 per year: • The 240 standard trailers would save £600,000 over 160 doubledecks; • Ate fuel hike would add Lim; • The 37 additional tractors would probably require an extra 80 drivers and cost circa Dm per year.
The group's CO2-reduction strategy is likely to include more double-decks in future, with potential for significantly greater use in the Waitrose division.