Government must encourage
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operators to become greener
THE GOVERNMENT must do more in terms of intervention and incentives to help road transport operators achieve the next level of environmental savings, say top logistics firms.
Several firms told the International Sustainable Logistics Conference in Huddersfield last week that, despite huge industry improvements in fuel efficiency and greener operations, without incentives and considerable investment in infrastructure and development, the next phase of fuel saving and carbon reduction would be stymied.
Jim York, head of DHL Supply Chain's global environmental initiative GoGreen, says: "We are confident we will hit our 2012 target of a 10% reduction in carbon with existing technology, but. beyond that it becomes more problematic. We need new fuels and technologies and they are not coming online quickly enough. We are doing everything we can to move the process along, but it requires help and incentives from government to get new vehicles and technologies into mass production."
Dave Rowlands, technical services director at Wincanton, says: "We have trialled all kinds of new fuels, but national infrastructure is of course a key requirement.
"All products have merit, but large fleets will have to buy based on practicality and price."
Chris Hall, head of national transport at Asda, says: "We are very passionate about succeeding in rail and we have taken seven million miles off the road, but this is only 3% of our activity and it is not enough.
"We need the rail industry to make modal switch much more attractive.