On the road to greener transportation with freight exchange services

Freight transportation is a key source of global carbon emissions, with commercial vehicles travelling long journeys along motorways to deliver their daily loads, expending large quantities of fuel on route. The Freight Transport Association estimates that the industry accounts for around a third of the 21 per cent of UK domestic greenhouse gas emissions associated with road transport.

Every year, thousands of vehicles embark on their journeys, delivering their loads, before returning home empty. As many as 25 per cent of trucks, HGVs and couriers travel on UK roads with no cargo, while over 50 per cent are only half full, according to the European Environment Agency. This problem is not just unique to UK, but across Europe and America too.

‘Operators have remained focused on achieving logistics efficiency and reducing costs. Despite lower business volumes, levels of vehicle lading are improving, and empty running is unchanged,’ said the Freight Transport Association’s back in 2012.  

Fortunately innovation in this sector has now allowed efficiencies to be created, particularly through the use of online freight exchange services like Returnloads.net. Here members are able to advertise their available loads or drivers, matching return journeys with delivery loads to the same destination. For example, rather than returning to base empty, a vehicle driving from Manchester back to London can advertise itself and pick up a new load to take to the capital.  

By matching up loads with drivers, it effectively saves one complete round trip, with one vehicle used to complete two full jobs. Returnloads.net claims that in the last 12 months alone, their site has collectively saved over 200,000 empty HGV journeys; they have also recently upgraded their site to include courier loads, too:

“If the road haulage industry is serious about slashing the number of vehicles driving around the UK empty, it is crucial that there is a central online marketplace in which hauliers can seamlessly exchange information. After all, the carbon emissions, not to mention the cost savings to be made, are phenomenal,” said Richard Newbold, Returnloads.net’s Managing Director.

Freight exchange services provide firms with additional cost savings, including reduced search and administration costs associated with manually calling supply partners to find available drivers or loads; this way load matching can occur online, quickly and effectively. Development in new technology now allows drivers to locate available loads via their mobile phone, while they stop for fuel or services.

Users can also rate their supply partners, providing an e-bay style exchange facility where firms can choose to work with the most reliable partners, improving the efficiency of the supply chain:

“We estimate that there are currently around 40 million wasted miles daily. Without a doubt, there is still plenty of scope for further collaboration between logistics providers as long as they have a trusted portal on which to exchange work. The road haulage industry is operating on low margins and reducing empty running has to be a priority, especially with fuel costs remaining high,” added Newbold.

Aside from freight and courier exchange services, the industry is making further moves to improve its environmental impacts by upgrading fleets with the most fuel efficient engines. Drivers are also trained in how to maximise the fuel consumption of their vehicle, reducing the average emissions associated with each journey.

While the industry is under pressure to reduce its environmental impacts further, on-going investment in research and development in ultra-low carbon technology will no doubt lead to additional carbon savings.