Motor Transport 22 February 2021

Sharp ■ Informed ■ Challenging

22.2.21

AVAILABLE NOW DfT finally sees sense over evaluating eco-friendly B-Double road trains

Denby Eco-Link to lead trial of 25m-long artics

ENTRIES ARE N OW O P E N

NEWS INSIDE

By Carol Millett

Back to the future

Hauliers revert to TIR carnets p3

Hazardous manoeuvres Bowker DC joins Hazchem

p4

Motorway madness

Driver filmed on two phones p7

OPERATORS INSIDE Absolutely .................................................... p6 Amazon......................................................... p3 DHL .............................................................. p4 DPD .............................................................p24 Fortec ........................................................... p7 Hazchem Network ......................................... p4 John Lewis...................................................p26 PMT Haulage................................................. p3 Royal Mail..................................................... p3 Tuffnells ....................................................... p4 Walker Logistics ........................................... p7 WH Bowker................................................... p4

The DfT is planning to trial around 3,000 25m-long artics on Britain’s roads this year and will drum up support by giving Denby Transport permission to use its Eco-Link B-Double road train as a demonstrator from next month.

Denby Transport chairman Dick Denby, who has been lobbying the government for over 20 years, told MT the DfT was looking at issuing a Section 44 permit to enable the 25.25m 60-tonne B-Double to take to the road from 1 March.

The move follows a survey requested by the DfT as evidence of industry appetite for such vehicles. This revealed overwhelming support, with 80% of responding hauliers stating an intention to adopt them.

Denby told MT: “I am currently in discussions with DfT officials on the parameters of the Section 44 licence and hopefully we will

get it on the road very soon.”

It is understood the vehicle will undergo a series of tests ahead of a wider trial.

HazComp MD Kevin Buck, another advocate of such vehicles who is working with the DfT on the trial plans, said: “In parallel to issuing the Section 44 permit for the Denby vehicle, the DfT will be considering how a wider trial would operate, including inviting interest from other operators.”

Describing the vehicles as a “win-win” for operators, he added: “They increase productivity

WAY AHEAD: Hexagon Leasing has taken receipt of its first Iveco-S-WAY tractor units at its Derby HQ. It is said to be the first rental and contract hire firm in the UK to place a significant order for the S-WAY. Over the next nine months, a mix of 100 6x2 and 4x2 480hp S-WAYs will be delivered to the firm by Iveco dealer South West Truck & Van. Mark Fletcher, MD of Hexagon Leasing, said: “This exciting next-generation Iveco S-WAY offers outstanding fuel efficiency, excellent onboard driver conditions and advanced connectivity. Hexagon saw the opportunity to enhance its leading fleet management provision with the Iveco S-WAY’s innovative remote diagnostics, which provides real-time connection keeping the driver in contact with the Hexagon team and the Iveco dealer network at the same time as optimising vehicle uptime.”

significantly per pallet moved while reducing operating costs, as two of these vehicles can do the same work as three standard articulated vehicles. Fuel consumption is much lower per pallet moved, meaning emissions are also significantly reduced.”

The Eco-Link is a 60-tonne GCW 25.25m-long eight-axle combination, in which a tractor unit pulls two semi-trailers, using fifth wheel couplings on both trailers.

Supporters argue that such vehicles provide much more efficient use of road space, with two of them effectively replacing three standard 16.5m artics and carrying 52 pallets each, rather than the normal 35.

Such trucks, which still conform to the standard 12.5m turning circle requirements of a conventional 16.5m articulated vehicle, are already in widespread use in Holland, Scandinavia and Spain.

GENERATION

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News extra: Urban freight p8 Warehousing p9 Viewpoint p10 Autonomous vehicles p12 Volvo MD interview p16 MT Awards winners p22-27

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Hauliers back-track on paperwork to sidestep Brexit chaos, says IRU

By Chris Tindall

It’s ‘back to the future’ for international hauliers needing smooth transport across borders after Brexit, as firms return to the TIR system, the International Road Transport Union (IRU) has claimed.

The IRU said paperwork, delays and a shortage of customs brokers and transit guarantees meant transport operators were turning to the TIR carnet as “a simple, cost-effective and easily accessible” method of managing new customs arrangements at borders.

The union highlighted the case of Polish haulier Sachs Trans, whose driver (pictured) transported a sealed load of medical supplies

from Raciborz to Ashford in Kent and sped through customs with just “a TIR carnet in the cabin and a blue TIR plate on the back of the trailer”.

TIR is operated by the IRU and UK hauliers can apply to join it as members of either the RHA or Logistics UK.

To comply, operators must meet financial requirements verified by HMRC checks, deposit a £3,500 admission guarantee and have trailers with a GB60 certificate showing they meet TIR requirements. They are then issued with a TIR carnet allowing them to transport goods cross-border using the TIR system. Subcontractors can also be included.

John Lucy, who leads the RHA Customs Brokerage team, said: “TIR is the only universal system that allows goods to transit from a country of origin to a country of destination in sealed compartments within customs control regulations, preventing unnecessary border checks.”

Scania’s British MD steps down into early retirement Scania (Great Britain) MD Martin Hay has taken early retirement.

Hay has worked for Scania for more than 30 years, with roles in the dealer network, at importer level and at Scania’s headquarters in Sweden.

In 2009, he moved to Scania GB’s Milton Keynes headquarters to take up the role of sales director.

From there, he transferred to Scania AB to become vice-president of truck sales.

He was then appointed MD for

Scania (Great Britain) in September 2018.

Commenting on the decision, Hay said: “I have been extremely fortunate to have worked for Scania for the majority of my career and will certainly miss my colleagues and the many friends I have made along the way.

“However, the time feels right for me to move on, as I have decided to make a lifestyle change which I believe will be in the best interests of myself and my family.”

Photo: Shutterstock

Hauliers revert to TIR carnet system

Midlands haulier set to build new lorry park A Midlands haulage company wants to build on vacant land in Walsall and park up to 40 HGVs as part of an expansion plan that will create new jobs.

PMT Haulage has applied to the council to convert almost 1.4 acres of land in Darlaston into a haulage yard, where vehicles and trailers will be securely parked.

It said eight full-time jobs will be created if the application gets the green light – two security guards and six HGV drivers.

The site, which is close to the M6 and A4038, will be used 24 hours a day, with between 10 and 40 lorries or trailers parked on it at its maximum.

In the application, agent First City said: “The proposed use will have no impact on neighbouring tenants/ businesses.

“The proposed activities will not result in the creation of excess noise or odour and the opening times will not result in any impact on neighbours due to its sustainable location within an employment and industrial area.”

■ Firethorn Trust is looking to build a 500,000sq ft logistics park in Peterborough with plans to open it in the summer of 2022. The £60m Kingston Park development is expected to create 150 jobs.

Amazon now chasing Royal Mail’s tail after becoming second-largest courier

Photo: Shutterstock

Amazon Logistics has risen to shipping index. become the UK’s second-largest Its most recent update showed courier by parcel volume, that Royal Mail was ranked the according to Pitney Bowes’ parcel largest, with 35% of all UK parcel

22.2.21

shipments, followed by Amazon Logistics with 15%, Hermes (10%), UPS (8%) and DHL (7%).

Together, the top five account for 75% of UK parcel shipments by volume.

DPD made the top five in terms of revenue with 8% of parcel market share – equal with DHL. David Jinks, ParcelHero head of consumer research, said: “Amazon has conquered almost every market it has entered. Now

it is the turn of the delivery market.

“We predicted Amazon Logistics would ultimately become a delivery company in its own right. Sure enough, in 2020 the company announced Amazon Shipping in the UK, a new parcel pick-up and delivery service available to any business, whether they use Amazon’s e-commerce platform to sell on or not.”

MotorTransport 3

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ParcelHero highlights Northern Ireland’s Brexit trade slump ParcelHero is calling on the government to take urgent action as official figures reveal over a third of UK importers are struggling at borders and Northern Ireland trade is in a downward spiral.

The latest ONS report showed transport costs, border disruption and customs duty problems significantly increased in the twoweek period between 24 January and 7 February.

David Jinks, ParcelHero head of consumer research, said border disruption resulted in 35% of businesses experiencing importing challenges, compared with 25% in the previous two weeks.

Similarly, 25% of exporters recorded disrup-

tion at borders, compared with just 19% reporting disruption in the preceding fortnight.

Jinks said the figures also showed rocketing transport costs, with 34% of businesses experiencing exporting challenges because of a rise in transportation costs. In addition, 26% of firms experienced exporting challenges because of customs duties or levies, up from 16% in the previous two-week period.

The figures also show 26% experienced importing challenges because of customs fees between 25 January and 7 February, compared with 16% in the preceding two weeks.

“Perhaps even more concerning, in terms of both trade and politics, are the escalating

problems experienced by those shipping goods to Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland Protocol is in danger of unravelling entirely if these trends continue,” Jinks warned.

“A massive 44% of retailers and wholesalers reported the volume of goods they shipped to Northern Ireland fell in the latest two-week period, compared to the previous fortnight, with 31.5% of manufacturers reporting that their export volumes to Northern Ireland were down.” n A new freight service from Dunkirk, France to the Port of Liverpool, which offers suppliers a way to avoid delays at the Channel ports, has been launched by Containerships, part of the global CMA CGM shipping group.

Addition of Selby distribution centre to Hazchem Network gives specialist Yorkshire presence

WH Bowker spreads its wings WH Bowker has expanded its services across Yorkshire by adding its Selby distribution centre to the Hazchem Network.

The move will allow the company, which specialises in carrying hazardous goods and chemicals, to offer a specialised ADR transport solution through Hazchem from its Selby DC. Under the deal, WH Bowker’s Selby DC will cover Hazchem’s YO postcodes, which include York, Goole, Howden, Thirsk, Selby, Drax, Bridlington, Scarborough, Malton, Pickering, Driffield and Dunnington.

WH Bowker operates more than 160 trucks and 300 trailers and over one million square feet of warehousing at seven UK distribution centres at Droitwich, Knowsley, Ripon, Selby, York, Preston and Hull.

The company also provides deep sea and air freight solutions.

Hazchem Network’s MD Robert Symes, said: “As one of the founding members of the Hazchem Network, Bowker already brings a wealth of experience and knowhow to the network.Bowker’s Selby depot undoubtedly strengthens the network’s position.”

Continental opts for DHL delivery

WEDGED IN: Tuffnells has joined forces with Don-Bur to develop a new trailer for urban use. The Mini Wedge is designed to operate in tight, urban areas and will enable Tuffnells to reduce its reliance on 18-tonne rigid vehicles for urban deliveries. Supplied by TIP Trailer Services, the first 9m-long single axle concept trailer has recently rolled out of the Don-Bur factory and is destined for a brief trial to ensure the new equipment fits with existing delivery and collection operations around Tuffnells’ 33 nationwide depots. Its sloping wedge shape is tailored to allow easy access from ground level at the rear and also incorporates side-access double-folding doors and fold-down ladders for easy side loading and kerbside deliveries. The side door design also allows pallets to be loaded, if needed, through the side when making customer collections.

4 MotorTransport

Continental has awarded a new contract to DHL Supply Chain to provide a next-day delivery service for its tyres across England and Wales.

The contract runs until 2026 and will see DHL deliver full truckloads directly from Continental’s Rugby National Distribution Centre to its customers and tyre dealership network across England and Wales via a dedicated fleet of 12 articulated vehicles and four rigid vehicles.

This solution will deliver around 75% of DHL’s tyre volume for Continental. DHL will deliver the remaining volume by integrating stock into its existing national tyre network.

It will have a small management and clerical team based in Rugby to oversee the fleet, agree priorities

and schedules, and manage administration.

Stewart Jackson (pictured), supply chain director at Continental, said: “Our customers expect Continental to be able to provide the right tyres on time in full and we are confident the DHL network can help meet these complex distribution challenges.”

22.2.21

The Low Emission Zone standards are getting tougher across most of Greater London for heavy goods vehicles, vans and specialist vehicles over 3.5 tonnes and buses, coaches and minibuses over 5 tonnes.

The new Euro VI standards are now changing on 1 March 2021. After this, you may have to pay a daily charge of up to £300 if you’re still using an older polluting vehicle.

This is part of the commitment by the Mayor, Sadiq Khan, and TfL to help Londoners breathe cleaner air.

Check your vehicle and see if you need to pay the daily charge, search LEZ.

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ADVERTORIAL

Tim Campbell is a leading commercial vehicle/ electric fuel cell consultant

It’s not difficult, it’s just different

By Tim Campbell As operators consider their transition to electromobility, the choice is increasingly not which van or truck to buy, but is the energy infrastructure sufficient to go electric at the pace they want to?

First things first: the UK can generate more than enough electricity to meet demand. Indeed, the National Grid has famously said that across the UK transmission grid we have more than enough electricity, it just might not be in the right place at the right time.

More good news is that the National Grid is migrating from non-renewable to renewable energy sources, decarbonising by 66% in the last seven years, with the ambition to be carbon-free by 2025. During 2020, Britain saw its longest run of generating electricity without using coal since the Industrial Revolution, stretching almost 68 days (1,630 hours) between 10 April and 16 June.

So as a nation we are in a good position powered by greener, cleaner energy, and for operators looking to transition from diesel to electric, a planned migration of trucks and infrastructure together makes for a better experience.

The move to electric will impact on many areas of your business (unlike anything you’ve experienced when buying diesels) that includes property or facilities management, purchasing, engineering, distribution, energy supplier, sales and legal. Some of these may appear a little ‘left field’ at first glance, but you will need all of these departments to work together for a successful implementation.

Strategically, you need to look at whether this is a ‘toe in the water’ or a full switch to electric; which routes/applications are suitable for electrification; do your sites have enough electricity available for a vehicle trial; and could they become fully electrified?

With this information you can identify the best vehicle and charging strategy. It isn’t always necessary to invest in DC rapid chargers, particularly if your operations involve back to base and are suitable for overnight charging. Renault Trucks’ D ZE models charge at 22kWh AC or 150kWh DC, so even the 265kW models will take around 10 hours for a full charge.

Rapid chargers are more expensive and perhaps better suit operations where a vehicle is being double-shifted, or a top-up charge is required to extend capability beyond the capacity of a single charge.

Be in no doubt electric is coming and therefore operators should look beyond the challenge of one vehicle and look to partners who are serious about electric.

Choose a manufacturer who is in for the long run, and has the network and expertise to look after the vehicle.

And select an infrastructure partner with the hardware and software to optimise your energy usage – fleet managers will soon need to be as aware of the cost per kWh of electricity as they are of a gallon of diesel today!

6 MotorTransport

Direct-injection project aims for 470hp output

AVL turns attention to hydrogen truck future Austrian powertrain specialist AVL is working on an internal combustion engine powered by hydrogen designed to provide heavy trucks with low-carbon propulsion at a fraction of the cost of fuel cells.

In a statement, AVL said: “The development project’s target is to increase both the efficiency potential of multi-port and a direct injected hydrogen engine concept for direct propulsion of a commercial vehicle with an existing standard powertrain. AVL used a 12.8 litre natural gas engine for the basis of development and set its performance target at 350kW [470hp].”

AVL is also working on fuel cells and recently signed a partnership agreement with Ceres Power Holdings to develop solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) powertrains for light-duty commercial vehicles.

Ceres will provide fuel cell and stack technology, while AVL will contribute application, integration and system know-how.

“Together, AVL and Ceres will extend their market reach, in particular by Ceres benefiting from AVL’s global engineering presence,” AVL said.

Phil Caldwell, chief executive of Ceres, added: “The potential for Ceres’ technology to play a role in the decarbonisation of the global energy system is substantial, and this collaboration with AVL is a significant step in our strategy to accelerate its adoption in an expanded number of applications and markets.”

Absolutely opens Holborn ‘Eco Hub’ London courier Absolutely has launched its fourth location, a zeroemission ‘Eco Hub’ in Holborn.

The company said the depot builds on government initiatives to improve air quality in the city and achieve a target of carbon neutrality by 2030.

The site provides 5,000sq ft of space, enabling Absolutely to expand its central London sameday, overnight and fulfilment service offerings to local businesses. It said the hub would also

allow it to provide a temperaturecontrolled and ambient solution using its growing fleet of e-vehicles.

Absolutely chief executive Stuart Godman (pictured), said: “As a business we’re in great shape, and despite the recent difficulties of the pandemic, the launch of our Eco Hub is something we’ve been planning for some time to ensure our business is set up for long-term success – supporting our valued customers, as well as the capital’s zero-emissions target.”

22.2.21

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‘Appalling’ incident nabbed driver with mobiles held to each ear on M4

Photo: Shutterstock

‘Two-phone trucker’ caught in crackdown HMRC clears up IR35 rules with new guidance Advice aimed at helping operators stay on the right side of new tax laws has been published by HMRC. Organisations engaging drivers and other contractors who work through their own limited company will be monitored when new tax rules kick in.

Under the updated IR35 rules, from 6 April large and medium-sized haulage companies – with net turnover of above £10m or with 50 or more staff – will no longer be able to hire drivers who work as limited companies.

Instead drivers will need to be employed as a PAYE worker, either by the haulier, the agency or via an umbrella company.

The changes make it easier for HMRC to prosecute tax evasion in the industry by switching the onus from the limited company driver to the end client, who must ensure their agency worker is employed within the rules and they will be responsible for any underpayment of tax by the driver.

An HGV driver was caught holding two mobile phones – one to each ear – as he drove along the M4 in his 44-tonne vehicle.

The incident was one of more than 100 offences Avon and Somerset police spotted earlier this month on motorways and described as “appalling, unacceptable and dangerous”.

It was captured on camera by officers as they patrolled in an HGV cab on loan from Highways England.

The police also spotted a 3.5-tonne vehicle illegally towing

a trailer in lane three of the M5 at excessive speed and another motorist holding a mobile phone and controlling their steering with just their little finger.

Other offences included not wearing a seatbelt; speeding; not being in proper control of a vehicle; and driving carelessly and inconsiderately.

As a result, four drivers have been summonsed to court and 72 traffic offence reports were issued.

Chief inspector Jason Shears, roads policing lead, said: “Research has shown that drivers using a

phone – handheld or hands-free – are four times more likely to be involved in a collision and their driving is also impaired to a degree similar to that of a drink driver.

“Fortunately, we have the majority of the public behind us, many of whom are submitting footage of offences to us via our website.

“This means that anyone could be capturing evidence of offending that could be used to prosecute a phone-using or otherwise distracted driver, so the chances of being caught are now much higher.”

Walker strolls to e-shopping high

FRESH FACED: Fortec Distribution Network has rolled out a major rebrand to underline its new era as part of the Pall-Ex Group of companies. The Northamptonshire pallet network has undergone the image overhaul as part of its 25th anniversary. The new look reflects Pall-Ex’s arrow branding, while keeping Fortec’s blue and green colour scheme. Pall-Ex said the new design will save approximately £2,000 to £3,000 per vehicle and reduce wastage from the fabrics used for curtain livery.

Walker Logistics said e-commerce orders increased by 317% during the fourth quarter of last year.

The company said the upturn reflected a general increase in online shopping and the addition of new accounts to its client base.

Despite the increase in the volume of orders picked, packed and dispatched, picking speeds and picking accuracy remained high at 99.98%.

The firm has also increased the size of its workforce by 20% since September. n Shoppers have urged retailers to clarify returns policies and offer longer returns windows after a survey by locker network InPost revealed consumers are sitting on £2.4bn of unreturned goods.

Gregory Distribution takes green leap with first bio-LNG filling station Gregory Distribution has installed its first bio-LNG refuelling station at its Cullompton depot.

In 2020, the company began a trial to test the suitability of bio-LNG to replace its diesel fleet and this involved running seven Volvo FH LNG 6x2 tractor units in Bristol and Magor.

This had been successful, it said, so it has installed the station, owned and operated by Gasrec, to fuel an additional 13 Volvo FHs. 22.2.21

Paul Jefferson, Gregory Distribution group legal, risk and sustainability director, said: “The technology has come on leaps and bounds in the past 12 months and the feedback from the drivers on the Volvo trucks has been hugely positive.

“The one challenge we have faced with LNG has been the infrastructure, but now with the help of Gasrec, we are taking control of our destiny by getting this facility on our own site.”

MotorTransport 7

News extra

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Freight in the City webinar series begins with a look at how electric vehicles will rule urban routes

The sparks of recovery A new series of Freight in the City webinars kicked off on 11 February with a focus on urban innovation and electric delivery vehicles, in partnership with Renault Trucks UK and Ireland.

Chairing the first of the Freight in the City webinars, MT editor Steve Hobson acknowledged how the Covid-19 pandemic had led to fundamental shifts in freight traffic in city centres, as people left offices to work from home.

As things recover, while delivery patterns may change, the key challenges of air and noise pollution, congestion, road safety and climate change are still going to exist.

“So, in a way, the pandemic perhaps gives us an often-used phrase, ‘The chance to build back better’, and hopefully this will happen. We can also see that electro-mobility is going to play a huge, huge role in this process,” he added.

Rikesh Shah, head of commercial innovation at TfL, spoke about the organisation’s partnership approach with industry to encourage innovation to help improve the lives of Londoners.

TfL recognises the importance of freight in the capital to keep the city functioning, with 90% of goods moved in London travelling by road. But with a 39% increase in freight kilometres travelled in the past 25 years and road space remaining the same, significant challenges around congestion, pollution and road safety need tackling.

TfL’s FreightLab scheme was launched in November 2019 to encourage innovation to focus on some of these themes. Seed funding and subject matter expertise

was provided by TfL, as well as offering up land for people to test out their innovation without cost.

New ideas are then tested out on the road with major freight carriers, including Ceva Logistics, DPD, Royal Mail and UPS. The six trials chosen for FreightLab will explore innovation around digital kerbside management; reduction in air and noise pollution; energy efficient tyres for electric vehicles; non-motorised last-mile deliveries; behavioural analysis for accident and near-miss prevention; and a courier smart connection platform.

Here and now

Carlos Rodrigues, MD of Renault Trucks UK and Ireland, focused on the role of electro-mobility in decarbonising urban freight.

“There’s no need to wait for a better technology; the technology available today and what we provide for urban transport fits most of our customer needs,” he said.

Highlighting the typical well-towheel CO2 emissions for an electric truck travelling around 150km per day using a typical EU electricity mix (comprising power from both sustainable and non-sustainable sources), Renault’s data shows

an approximate 60% reduction compared with its traditional diesel counterpart.

This benefit is even more pronounced when looking at the ‘cradle to grave’ lifespan of a 16-tonner, from the raw materials used in production through to recycling parts at the end. For a country such as France, with a highly decarbonised electricity grid, the CO2 impact can be reduced by as much as 80% over a typical 12-year lifecycle (or 500,000km).

“And that for me is a strong message,” said Rodrigues. “As part of the UK government’s Green Deal there is huge investment into wind and solar, so we know that in the coming years the electricity in UK will become even more decarbonised. So that means that the decisions made today on electric vehicles will only improve in the coming years in terms of impact on CO2.”

Renault Trucks has simplified the process of buying a new electric truck for customers. It will work with them to provide a complete package, from helping pick the right-sized battery (which all come with a vehicle lifetime guarantee) and exploring charging requirements, through to maintenance, finance and insurance guidance.

Renault Trucks has a full range of electric vehicles on the market for the urban sector, starting from 3.1 tonnes up to 26 tonnes. It is working in collaboration with a number of bodybuilders to offer a large variety of chassis cab platforms for customers.

In the club

Renault Trucks UK and Ireland MD Carlos Rodrigues said electric technology has a significant role to play in decarbonising urban freight

8 MotorTransport

Carlsberg Feldschlossen in Switzerland is on track to order 20 electric vehicles from Renault Trucks for use in its operation delivering to 10,000 bars and restaurants in urban areas.

With 23% of market share in Switzerland, and being the number one beer producer, it was very important to Carlsberg to ensure its deliveries were sustainable, both from an environmental perspective and brand positivity.

“The connection between sustainability and connecting with the brand has huge benefits for the whole company,” said Thomas Stalder, VP Integrated Supply Chain at Carlsberg Feldschlossen.

A company focus on sustainability was driving decisions, said Carlsberg’s Thomas Stalder

Stalder explained that in Switzerland, road tax is not payable on electric trucks, which helped with the business case for the purchase.

Meanwhile, the company’s ambition for zero emissions and zero accidents was also supported by the transition to cleaner fleet vehicles.

You can watch the webinar presentations and a lively Q&A session with the audience for free on freightinthecity.com 22.2.21

Focus: warehousing

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Agents warn record levels of take-up mean UK’s chronic warehousing shortage is likely to persist

Space race hits new high Companies face an increasing challenge in finding top-quality warehousing, leading property agents have warned. Record levels of take-up mean any new space is being snapped up, doing little to alleviate the UK’s chronic shortages.

Savills’ latest Big Shed Briefing, which focuses on buildings above 100,000 sq ft, found that 2020 saw the most take-up ever of speculatively-built warehouses, at 10 million sq ft – part of a record 50.1 million sq ft that was taken up overall during the year.

“We are currently tracking 8.19 million sq ft of speculative

development due to reach practical completion in 2021, which, given current take-up levels, will largely maintain supply and vacancy at its

current level,” the report said.

A high proportion of demand is from internet retailing. According to CBRE’s UK Logistics report,

‘pureplay’ online retailers with no store presence at all accounted for 31.3% of take-up during 2020, up from 22.1% the previous year.

This trend looks set to continue this year. ASOS, for example, announced plans in January for a 437,000 sq ft fulfilment centre at Fradley Park in Lichfield.

Meanwhile, Royal Mail has announced that construction of its largest parcels hub, partly designed to support the e-commerce boom, is underway at DIRFT in Daventry. Being Developed by Prologis, the 840,000 sq ft building will process up to one million parcels a day.

Speculative development fails to keep pace in South West The South West has seen strong levels of demand for warehousing in the past few years which show no sign of abating.

According to a report from Alder King, take-up in the region grew by 50% to 6.3 million sq ft last year.

Much of the activity centred around the Greater Bristol area, where 2.2 million sq ft was let or sold. This included a 139,000 sq ft building developed speculatively

by Barwood Capital in Avonmouth, which was let to spice firm Bart Ingredients.

Also in Avonmouth, Wincanton has taken Logicor’s 248,000 sq ft WA248 building and Amazon is believed to be taking the adjacent 316,000 sq ft WA316. However, the largest deal in the region was in

Swindon, where Panattoni is developing a 2.3 million sq ft building – again for Amazon.

Rob Russell, a director of Russell Property Consultants, said: “Demand is coming from right across the board including 3PLs, all of whom are really busy on the back of online retailing.”

Despite this, there has been little speculative development at the larger end of the market, with most of the space taken on a build-to-suit basis.

“There is only one quality unit above 100,000 sq ft currently available in Greater Bristol, so companies may have to wait 18 months for something to be built,” Russell said.

Paul Hobbs, a director at Avison

Young, added: “The supply of decent large buildings has all but gone and speculative development has been quite slow to replace it.”

There are currently more than enough development sites, although land supply is not infinite.

“There are about 500 acres of serviced land in Avonmouth but most developments take out 20-50 acres at a time and it is the only land Bristol’s got,” Hobbs said.

One exception to the lack of large-scale speculative development is Mountpark’s 360,000 sq ft building, called Bristol 360, in Avonmouth, due for completion in July. However, most speculative activity involves mid-box schemes from 20,000 sq ft to 150,000 sq ft.

For example, construction is

about to start on the second phase of the More+ scheme in Avonmouth, consisting of six units from 31,000 sq ft to 108,000 sq ft.

Trebor Developments and Hillwood are to build a 113,000 sq ft building at Central Approach in Bristol, while St Modwen is developing four units, from 36,000 sq ft to 55,000 sq ft in Gloucester (pictured).

Segro gets the go-ahead for a super-green vision at new Tottenham site Segro is to build what it claims will be London’s greenest warehousing estate.

The company has been granted planning consent by Haringey Council and the Greater London Authority to develop eight speculative units totalling 190,000 sq ft at Segro Park Tottenham.

The building’s energy supplies will be taken from renewable sources, both on-site and off-site. Each unit will have green walls growing 22.2.21

a variety of plants to remove pollutants from the air and reduce carbon monoxide.

There will also be landscaped areas to attract wildlife and staff welfare will be improved through the use of natural light, outdoor seating and gym equipment.

Secure bike sheds will double up as insect ‘hotels’ and electronic vehicle charging points will be installed across the estate.

During construction, no

material will be sent to landfill and, when built, photovoltaic roof panels will generate 10% more energy than is required.

Alan Holland, Segro’s MD for Greater London, said: “Segro Park Tottenham will be a game-changer for industrial development and will show what can be done to meet our responsibilities as property developers.”

Refurbishment is also adding to the supply of green buildings. Segro has

completed a zero-carbon upgrade of a 45,000 sq ft warehouse in Park Royal and Orchard Street Investment Management has let a 20,000 sq ft unit to Airbox Fulfilment at its redeveloped zero-carbon Communication Park in Feltham.

Meanwhile, large-scale developers Prologis and Tritax Big Box have produced a joint report called Logistics Property: Net Zero Building in Action.

MotorTransport 9

Viewpoint

motortransport.co.uk

New rules will raise the game I t is a given that the lockdown has led to a huge increase in home delivery of everything from food and drink to clothing as shops close and people heed the stay-at-home message. Sitting working at my window looking out on the street, there Steve Hobson is a constant stream of 3.5 tonne (and Editor bigger) diesel vehicles in various states of Motor repair dropping off items to my neighbours.

Transport While some are very smart and in the liveries of some of the large multinational carriers, a good proportion are clearly driven by subbies with far fewer resources than a DPD or UPS. How on earth are we going to decarbonise this disparate fleet of home delivery vehicles when electric vans cost three times more than diesel and it will be years before any reach the second-hand market?

One answer could be to admit that we can no longer allow anyone with an old van and a driving licence to run freely around our urban areas. Low-emissions zones that charge diesel vehicles to enter will certainly discourage them. But if we are to fund expensive clean vehicles, then consolidation is going to be needed, with parcels from all carriers trunked into hubs on the edges of

towns and cities for delivery by a single contractor using only clean technology. A handful of university campuses are already doing this to good effect.

Of course, universities and other private closed sites can do what they like, including restricting or eliminating competition on their last mile for the good of the planet.

But maybe we can learn from the water industry, which was privatised in the Thatcher years. It is impossible to have last-mile competition in the water industry as who wants to pay for two or three water pipes coming into their homes?

Instead there are 25 private monopoly water suppliers regulated by Ofwat to make sure their charges are reasonable, while meeting their environmental and water quality standards. How well this system works is open to debate, but there is no doubt it has delivered huge investment from private capital (money the government had no intention of spending) to improve both our drinking water quality and marine environment.

Could a similar private, regulated franchise model work for clean urban deliveries? Answers on a postcard (well, email preferably) please.

A taxing problem for the High Street D Melanie Darvall Director of marketing & comms, whistl

espite the on-off closure of nonessential retail during 2020 and into 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the traditional High Street has faced increasing pressures in recent years from lower footfall and challenges from online-only retailers.

We appear to be at a tipping point as to how we can ensure the High Street remains a vibrant community resource, while balancing the convenience and variety offered by online retail.

One of the government’s solutions is the Digital Services Tax (DST), introduced in September 2020, which has the aim of taxing multinational digital enterprises to create more tax equality with traditional retailers.

However, the theory, when turned into practice, found that outlets such as Amazon passed on the tax to their selling partners to either absorb or pass on to the end consumer.

We asked (through a nationwide survey) what the UK online consumer thought about the impact of the DST on their behaviour. We found it would have little effect, with only one-third feeling

10 MotorTransport

encouraged to spend a little more in store and only a quarter of these reducing their online spend.

Interestingly, 38% of younger shoppers and those with children (36%) were motivated the most by the DST, but it had the least effect on older shoppers (78%) and those without children (73%).

Encouragingly for the Treasury, only 27% do not think there should be any DST at all, which drops to 15% among younger shoppers and up to 35% among those aged over 65.

The call to tax online retailers was seen as a way to help restore the health of the high-street, but our findings show that this tax will not help. Any DST passed onto the end customer will not have a significant impact on shopper behaviour.

Our findings highlight that when issues arise outside the control of the online retailer, they need to access experts who can help them navigate these issues.

The newspaper for transport operators

To contact us: Tel: 020 8912 +4 digits or email: name.surname@roadtransport.com Editor Steve Hobson 2161 Head of content Tim Wallace 2158 Events and projects editor Hayley Pink 2165 Group production manager Isabel Burton Layout & copy editor Nick Shepherd Senior display sales executive Barnaby Goodman-Smith 2128 Event sales Tim George 0755 7677758 Classified and recruitment advertising rtmclassified@roadtransport.com Divisional director Vic Bunby 2121 MT Awards Katy Matthews 2152 Managing director Andy Salter 2171 Editorial office Road Transport Media, First Floor, Chancery House, St Nicholas Way, Sutton, Surrey SM1 1JB 020 8912 2170 Free copies MT is available free to specified licensed operators under the publisher’s terms of control. For details, email mtsccqueries@roadtransport.com, or call 01772 426705 Subscriptions Email:customercare@dvvsubs.com Quadrant Subscription Services, Rockwood House, Perrymount Road, Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH16 3DH Rates UK £146/year. Europe £176/year.

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Autonomous vehicles

Going hands-free Self-driving vehicles have been technically possible for many years, but what are the remaining barriers to their adoption?

John Kendall reports

A

string of announcements concerning autonomous vehicle projects, both car and commercial vehicle, generated many headlines about seven years ago, but it seems to have quietened down of late. That’s not surprising in a way. There were many technical stages that needed considerable development.

Then there are the legal implications. In the UK and most other countries, motor vehicles are under the control of their drivers. When an accident occurs, someone must be held liable for it – and that someone would be one of the drivers involved. If there is no driver, who or what would be held responsible?

It is also impossible to ignore the effect that autonomous driving will have on drivers. Will they still be needed? What will be expected of them if they are?

Then there are infrastructure issues. What will we need to do to our road network to accommodate vehicles that drive themselves? How do we need to develop our communications systems?

The future still looks confused. In December, news broke that Uber was selling its autonomous car division.

Earlier last year, the government announced that the first autonomous vehicles would be arriving on dual-carriageways this spring, in just a few weeks’ time. Then in January this year, there were suggestions in the press that driverless cars were still years away and that there were places where it was unlikely that autonomous vehicles would be able to operate at all.

Tomorrow’s world

Scania believes much of the technology needed for high levels of autonomy could be ready by the middle of this decade, although it is unlikely legislation will advance at the same pace

12 MotorTransport

Much of the technology that has become commonplace on commercial vehicles in recent years forms the basis of autonomous driving systems. Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) include emergency brake assist, adaptive cruise control, traffic jam assistance, and lanekeeping assist, which will steer your vehicle back into the lane if it is starting to wander out of it. These systems are integrated cameras, radar sensors and possibly LiDAR sensors, positioned around the vehicle to regulate vehicle speed and direction accordingly.

We would also need high-speed data communications between vehicles, and between vehicles and intelligent road signs known as Vehicle2X. Vehicle2X would carry information about traffic flow, road conditions and obstacles that are out of the driver’s visual range ahead.

Vehicle2X is one of the driving factors behind the development of the 5G network, which is capable of handling the volume and speed of data required for true vehicle autonomy.

In short, both vehicle-based technologies and roadsidebased technologies need to be developed further. But progress is being made.

“The industry expectation is that the technology required for Level 4 autonomy is achievable on a number of pre-determined routes within a five-year timeframe,” Vincente Connolly, UK sales director of Scania (Great Britain) told MT. “However, infrastructure and legislative requirements may take longer.” (See box, right).

Most people we spoke to shared the view that technology leads the legislative process, which we will come to later. Where technology is concerned, it is difficult to find a common response to what could be operational and when.

“Advanced companies in this sector claim they should be in Level 5 by 2024, which means the regulation needs to be up to speed if we want to take advantage of this innovation,” says Jorge Asensio, TCO services manager at Iveco UK & the Republic of Ireland.

22.2.21

motortransport.co.uk

VEHICLE AUTONOMY LEVELS Level 1: Driver assistance Vehicles are fitted with systems such as emergency brake assist, which will apply full braking pressure in an emergency if you have not done so. Other systems might include blind-spot monitoring.

These technologies have been in use for some time.

Level 2: Partial automation Vehicles are equipped with systems such as adaptive cruise control, which can vary vehicle speed to keep a set distance from the vehicle in front by accelerating and braking. Lane keeping assist, which can apply steering torque to help keep the vehicle between lane markings, is also a Level 2 system.

Level 3: Conditional automation This is a further development of Level 2, where the vehicle controls all monitoring of its environment with sensors such as LiDAR, cameras and radar.

The driver is still in control of the vehicle, but functions such as braking the vehicle to a halt using systems such as autonomous emergency braking can be carried out without driver input.

All European truck manufacturers are participants in the European platooning project Ensemble, which also includes component suppliers. The project has carried out platooning tests on test tracks and plans to conduct them on European roads. The most recent meetings during the pandemic have been virtual. Scania, MAN and Iveco told us that there are no fresh developments in platooning at present. Ensemble began in 2018 and was scheduled to close in May 2021. Several manufacturers have also carried out their own autonomous driving tests.

While platooning probably represents the first phase of autonomous HGV driving, focusing on motorway use, the Swedish company Einride has adopted a different approach. Its entire vehicle range is electrically powered and its approach to autonomous vehicles has been to only design driverless vehicles, which the company terms Autonomous Electric Transport (AET).

The Einride Pod is designed as a distribution truck.

“While motorways are no doubt a crucial part of any transport network, our operational domain-based classification for AET is based on the simplicity of use case,” Einride marketing and communications associate Brian León told MT. “In our view, it is more effective to deploy autonomous vehicles like the Pod in less complex environments first, such as closed facilities, nearby deliveries and rural roads (AET Levels 1 to 3), then graduating to highway operation. We intend to have AET Level 4 (highway) Pods on motorways around the world by 2023.”

León expands on the plans: “Ports, large transport hubs and other relatively nearby facilities make the best use-case for vehicles like the Pod at the moment, and as we continue to develop our high-speed operational capabilities – as well as see improvements in battery and charging technology – longer-distance routes will open up.” While León recognises that Pods could be developed for platooning use, Einride has doubts about the concept and the company is not currently pursuing developments for platooning. ➜ 14 22.2.21

The Ensemble platooning project involving Scania, MAN and Iveco has driven autonomous vehicle innovation

Level 4: High automation The vehicle is capable of automating most functions, including steering, braking, acceleration, as well as monitoring its surroundings and the vehicle itself. It is capable of responding to events, can calculate when to change lanes or make a turn, and use signals. It would signal to the driver when it is safe to hand over control to the vehicle and would also signal to the driver when he or she needs to resume control. It cannot distinguish between situations such as merging into traffic and a traffic jam.

Level 5: Complete automation The vehicle is capable of driving itself in all situations, which means there is no need for driver controls at all.

MotorTransport 13

Autonomous vehicles

“A lot of our members were asking, ‘What’s the benefit of platooning?’,” comments Phil Lloyd, head of engineering policy at Logistics UK. “Whether platooning delivers all the benefits that it says – environmental benefits are probably a little bit questionable – but what won’t be wasted will be the technological developments that come along from it.”

motortransport.co.uk

Swedish manufacturer Einride is developing driverless ‘Pods’. The electric vehicles are initially focused on rural roads and less challenging routes

Legal issues

There is little doubt that the technology needed for autonomous operations could be developed, but arguably the biggest challenge at the moment is legal. Iveco’s Asensio summarises the issue: “Now, when a driver is involved in an accident, liability for any damage or human injury lies with the driver, or the company who hired the driver.

With an autonomous vehicle this is not defined, and the law doesn’t yet have the mechanisms to identify who would be liable for any issue.”

The two big issues that will need to be resolved will be concerned with responsibility under civil law and under criminal law. In a road accident, civil law is concerned with who is responsible for the vehicle, which currently could be either the driver or the driver’s

employer. Jonathon Backhouse, a partner at solicitor Backhouse Jones, says that the civil law aspects will be the easier to deal with. “I think they’ll just move any elements of a requirement for human identification into effectively the user of the vehicle, whoever is responsible for that vehicle being on that road on that day, taking that journey,” he says. “That’s from a civil liability perspective and that will be just disputes between insurance companies in essence and that’s how it will be dealt with.

“What will be far more concerning and actually perhaps a bigger deal in the end is ‘What if there’s a criminal responsibility?’

“That’s going to be far more challenging when there’s a failure of technology that causes an accident, because there isn’t overtly a person to blame. So the human cry for blood after an incident to find an individual to hold criminally accountable is going to be lost because who is that individual? Is it a software programmer? Is it a tech guy who did the latest update or didn’t do the latest update? Is it an engineering person who plugged a computer in but used out-of-date software? And suddenly, the individual who might have some level of culpability is going to be removed from the incident itself.” n

LAW COMMISSION CONSULTATION ON AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES Clearly, a great deal of time could be taken up in resolving the legal aspects of autonomous operations. Luckily for all of us, the Law Commission, in conjunction with the Scottish Law Commission, was asked to review the law and regulation of automated vehicles by the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles three years ago and has examined the matter in some detail. The two bodies have now produced their third consultation document on the subject and the consultation process remains open until 18 March.

The consultation proposes three key legal actors to take responsibility for how an automated vehicle drives. These are respectively the automated driving system entity (ADSE), the user-in-charge and a licensed fleet operator. The ADSE is the manufacturer or developer that puts the vehicle forward for categorisation as a self-driving vehicle. The user-in-charge would be the individual in the driving seat while the ADS is engaged. The licensed fleet operator is responsible for the remote operation of vehicles with no user-in-charge. n There is a summary document which contains all 58 of the consultation questions. Both the full and summary documents can be downloaded from: www.lawcom.gov.uk/project/automated-vehicles/ Comments may be sent using an online form at: https://consult.justice.gov.uk/law-commission/automatedvehicles-regulatory-framework Responses can also be sent by email to: automatedvehicles@lawcommission.gov.uk 14 MotorTransport

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Interview: Christian Coolsaet

motortransport.co.uk

Riding the storm Christian Coolsaet, the new MD of Volvo Trucks UK & Ireland, says the truck manufacturing sector is one of the lucky few to have fared well during the Covid-19 pandemic, writes Steve Hobson

C

hristian Coolsaet was appointed MD of Volvo Trucks UK & Ireland in September 2020, taking over from Robert Grozdanovski, who has moved back to Gothenburg HQ to take up a new role as senior vice president, sales area Europe Central East & East.

Coolsaet has more than 20 years’ experience with Volvo, most recently as MD of Volvo Group Trucks Germany, having started out with Volvo Buses, before switching to trucks and working in diverse markets including Ukraine, Romania, Austria and South Africa.

A Flemish Belgian, Coolsaet still has family in Belgium and has found the lockdown in the pandemic particularly difficult. Despite its proximity across the North Sea, he hasn’t been back to his homeland since arriving in the UK, despite there being a slightly vague exemption allowing “senior business people” to travel across borders.

“I will not do anything that is not in line with legislation or common sense,” he says firmly.

But from a business perspective, Coolsaet says the pandemic has not been as disruptive as he feared when it first struck in March last year.

“We started with contingency plans as the factory shut

16 MotorTransport

down and the supply chain was disrupted,” he says.

“But quickly, truck demand recovered and the shift of consumption online accelerated phenomenally. Many fleet customers are telling us that ‘it has been like Christmas every day for six months’.

“Demand for trucks since summer 2020 has been continuously high and we reopened the factories in a Coronavirus-safe manner,” says Coolsaet. “The European markets such as Germany have been doing better in 2020 than in 2019.”

This was not the case in the UK, where truck sales in Q2 2020 were 73% down on 2019, although the market stabilised in Q3, falling only 2% year on year.

While Volvo did see one direct customer, a major high-street retailer, go bust, most of its customers are 3PLs, which simply redeployed vehicles in busier markets.

Government aid

This year will see the end of several government schemes to support individuals and businesses financially, so the economic impact of the pandemic – which has already seen UK GDP fall 9% between February and November 2020 – could worsen. But Coolsaet says Volvo Trucks is 22.2.21

motortransport.co.uk

in good shape to withstand another recession.

“We are ready for any economic downturn,” he says.

“It will come, but we have right-sized the company. I was reading an article that said we might see a return of the Roaring Twenties as a lot of people have saved money and will have more disposable income after the pandemic.

“Managerial agility and the flexibility to respond to whatever situation happens are all-important. If you look back at the world 15 years ago, there is no way we could have predicted what is now going on. Evolution is often described as the survival of the fittest, but that is not really true. What Darwin was referring to was the survival of the species that are most responsive to change.

“I am still positive and optimistic that mankind will be creative and entrepreneurial and will adapt to change.

There will be no time to get bored – it’s going to be rock ‘n’ roll!”

Almost unnoticed beneath the tidal wave of Covid-19 was the fact that the UK transition arrangements with the EU finally ended on 31 December 2020, four years after the vote leave referendum. A last-gasp trade agreement avoided the introduction of World Trade Organization terms, which could have seen the imposition of a 12% import tariff on new trucks. Previous Brexit deadlines had seen a pull forward of orders and Q4 last year was buoyant as the market continued its recovery from the Q2 slump. Coolsaet says December was in fact “by far the best month ever” for wholesale sales.

“It was a magical number – we invoiced for 1,111 trucks in December,” he says. “It is a mythical number that is said to be a call from your guardian angel!”

Increased demand

Those trucks were ordered by dealers, not for stock by the OEM, and are already on the road. “There has been an increased demand fuelled by the Brexit deadline that both sides were determined would happen this time,” Coolsaet goes on. “But we are still seeing a good demand for trucks in early 2021. There will be winners and losers, but Brexit is now in the past, so let’s look forward to the opportunities of the future.”

Until recently, Volvo seemed to be focused on developing natural gas trucks using its proprietary high-pressure direct injection (HPDI) system that offers lower fuel consumption than spark ignition engines, while sister company Renault was leading the charge on battery electric vehicles (BEVs). Volvo and Renault do work closely on BEV drivetrains, and Volvo unveiled the FL and FE electric in 2018, while last November DHL Supply Chain took delivery of its first electric truck, a 16-tonne Volvo FL, which will operate in central London.

“Volvo does not leave battery electric to any brand other than ourselves,” says Coolsaet. “We have a strong offer in the medium duty with the FL and FE. One of my career high points was delivering the world premier of the first 26-tonne electric truck in Hamburg in May 2018. I still get goosebumps when I think of driving that first FE Electric.

“That was a great leap forward, but combustion engines will be around for a while – and am I believer in gas?

Absolutely. It brings a 20% CO2 reduction for long-range vehicles and both will have their place in coming years in parallel. We see gas as a bridge technology, but it will be a very long bridge!

“Volvo can now look at the future from a position of strength. The future will be very complex and there will be no one technology that is going to prevail. It will be a mix of BEV, fuel cell electric and combustion, with gas being a part of it and, to a large extent for the coming years, diesel.

“We have a lot of experience with turbo compound technology in the US and that gives a clear advantage in diesel fuel consumption.”

The EU has set mandatory targets for CO2 reduction of 15% by 2025 and 30% by 2030 for trucks over 16 tonnes, 22.2.21

RISING TO THE CHALLENGE: Christian Coolsaet, MD of Volvo Trucks UK & Ireland, is helping the company successfully navigate its way through the Covid-19 pandemic

with big fines for those OEMs that fail to achieve them.

The VECTO simulation tool used to calculate the CO2 reduction gives a 14% allowance for compressed natural gas and a 20% allowance for liquefied natural gas – the technology preferred by Volvo.

Coolsaet says that the first target will largely be met by improving the efficiency of diesel engines and selling more gas trucks – but BEVs will play their part too.

“It is going to be a mix of solutions,” says Coolsaet.

“We believe that our I-Save package is going to be a big contributor.”

I-Save is Volvo’s package of fuel-saving measures that can reduce fuel consumption – and so CO2 emissions – by 10%.

Double credits

The EU targets also include ‘super credits’ for so-called zero-emissions vehicles such as BEVs, giving them double credits in the VECTO calculation.

“We will need to have battery-driven vehicles, so we are going to push these massively this year,” says Coolsaet.

“We have a taskforce in Sweden that will help make the business model more clear for customers (see panel, below). We are ready to market a few hundred vehicles this year across Europe and this will be necessary to meet the 2025 target. There is no room for failure on that.”

Volvo’s Generation 2 electric truck has a range of ➜ 18

MORE THAN JUST A TRUCK Getting operators to move away from diesel to alternative fuels like gas and electric isn’t just a matter of explaining that with lower running costs the total cost of ownership can be competitive despite the higher upfront cost of the vehicle.

The smaller range, and problems with refuelling or recharging, are still major stumbling blocks, and rather than wait for the energy companies to build national networks, Volvo has set up a taskforce dedicated to working with dealers and operators to address these issues.

“The chicken and the egg must come together,” Coolsaet says. “We don’t need to wait for each other – we need to speak to each other and come up with solutions.”

One area that the taskforce is focused on is the production of carbon-neutral biomethane from animal waste slurry.

“Natural gas gives a 20% reduction in CO2, but we can get a 100% reduction with slurry,” Coolsaet says. “We have customers such as utilities working with waste products to make a more sustainable transport system.

“We need more creativity to bring all the parties together to come up with solutions.”

While VECTO gives an allowance of up to 20% CO2 reduction for gas vehicles, it does not recognise the increased contribution made by renewable biomethane – something Volvo would like to see changed.

“There is no shame in politicians changing their view,” says Coolsaet.

“If you can prove your case for well-to-wheel CO2 neutrality, then come on guys, this planet needs us to be cleverer.

“From a personal point of view, we would be idiots if we were not willing to pick up on it.”

MotorTransport 17

Interview: Christian Coolsaet

motortransport.co.uk

BUOYANT MARKET: Demand for trucks since summer 2020 has been continuously high

350km, which is more than adequate for DHL’s requirement for 160km per day urban routes. That vehicle has four batteries and both models give the option of between two and six batteries, extending the range up to 500km.

The 26-tonne refuse truck in Hamburg fitted with a compactor is getting a range of 200km, which is again enough for a day’s work.

Looking further ahead, Volvo and Daimler have a joint venture to develop hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles, but with some technical challenges such as cooling to sort out, the first production vehicles are not expected to hit the roads until 2026.

After investing heavily in meeting the Euro-6 standard

on local pollutants, it is now spending billions of euros on R&D in future low-carbon truck technology. This, says Coolsaet, is why gas and electric trucks cost so much more than diesel.

“The build cost is one thing, but the R&D cost is massive,” he says. “Everyone thinks that transport is free, but nothing is for free. Low-carbon transport is more expensive and the government either has to pay a subsidy or the consumer has to be willing to pay more for it.

“It is wrong to think we can run an environmental transport system for the same cost as a combustion one.

It is going to need a change in mindset and I think we are a good way towards achieving it.” n

SHOULD THE EU PREVENT DUMPING OF ELECTRIC VEHICLES FROM THE FAR EAST? The Euro-6 standard for diesel engines acted as an effective barrier to entry for cheap Chinese and Korean trucks, with the R&D cost of meeting this tough emissions standard being too high.

But as Euro-6 diesel is replaced by battery electric and maybe hydrogen fuel cell technology, this barrier will disappear, leading to concerns that the big European and Scandinavian OEMs will be undercut by cheaper Far Eastern vehicles made in huge volumes for a worldwide market hungry for low-emission transport.

One possible response could be EU import tariffs, which the UK could choose to follow.

“A defensive attitude is never a long-term solution,” argues Coolsaet.

“When you isolate yourself from what is going on in the rest of the world, it 18 MotorTransport

doesn’t bring anything good.

“We are wide open to what is coming, but the playing field needs to be level.

The social aspects of trading with one another need to be clear and that is why we have trade agreements to prevent dumping. We should negotiate from a position of strength and we are developing alliances with Isuzu, for example, to play in other parts of the globe. I don’t think we should introduce protectionist measures and we need to develop the

technology of the future in order to lead in other parts of the world where we have not been before.”

22.2.21

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22/01/2021 11:13

MT Awards 2020 winner profile Innovation Award

Easy glider Electra Commercial Vehicles has partnered with three major OEMs to develop its low-emission electric RCV. While it might be quiet, the innovative truck is making a big noise in the sector... and beyond

A

s cities globally seek to improve air quality, attention has turned to road transport and its role in eliminating harmful emissions.

London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone and the planned roll-out of regional clean air zones in cities will see operators hit with strict regulations for mitigating the environmental impact of their fleets.

One sector that particularly finds itself in the spotlight when it comes to operating in dense, urban areas is waste and recycling.

Refuse collection vehicles are unique in that they are high fuel consumption and low mileage, and because of their low speed, can be high producers of emissions; even Euro-6 may not get hot enough to burn the particulates off.

In addition to emissions, the noise of the vehicle with its engine idling can also cause a disturbance within residential and business areas.

Overcoming challenges

Blackburn-based Electra Commercial Vehicles believes it has the solution for waste operators in the form of its all-electric RCV. In a unique partnership, Electra works closely with three major manufacturers that manufacture ‘glider’ chassis to Electra’s specification. These are factoryproduced chassis without an engine, gearbox, fuel system, AdBlue system or exhaust system.

Focusing on popular low-entry chassis for city refuse collections, the gliders used by Electra are the MercedesBenz Econic platform, Iveco Eurocargo and Dennis Eagle Elite. All three manufacturers have given Electra full

WHAT IT MEANS TO WIN “We are immensely proud to be recognised as Motor Transport winners in 2020.

This recognition simply adds further credence to the Electra journey so far.

“Customers are wanting to make the transition to cleaner vehicles and Electra is paving the way with some real innovation and is proud to be based here in the UK. “We are not making daily statements about our market value as a business.

Companies who have not made any EV product are seemingly worth multi-billions!

“We can just concentrate our efforts to deliver real-world solutions to an ever-growing customer base.”

Sid Sadique,chairman, Electra 22 MotorTransport

access to their systems, including CANbus, so important areas such as automatic braking and lane assist are not impacted by the chassis being electrified.

Electra has also developed its own electric power takeoff (e-PTO) to operate refuse bodies, fridges, cranes and other engine-driven applications.

As a final major coup, Electra has announced it now has Type Approval for its electric chassis. “This is very exciting news for us,” says group commercial director Russell Markstein. “The large truck manufacturers that spend millions of euros each year on R&D have worked with us to achieve this – it’s very much a collaboration.

“Now we have Type Approval from the VCA on our electric chassis, it’s not classed as a conversion anymore.

The trucks can simply go into a dealership if there’s a warranty issue, just like a traditional diesel variant.”

Electra is also affiliated to sister firm Riverside Truck Rental, with further backup provided from engineers all trained to Level 4 on EV maintenance.

Industry appetite

Despite the disruption of the past year’s Covid-19 pandemic, Electra has remained operational throughout and is this year on track to roll out a bumper tally of vehicles to operators.

Public sector demand has been growing, with both the City of London and Greater Manchester councils placing multi-vehicle orders for their waste fleets.

The City of London, through its subcontractor Veolia, is now operating seven Electra bin lorries based on the Dennis Eagle Elite chassis, becoming the first local authority in the UK with a fully electric waste fleet.

Meanwhile, the City of Manchester, through its subcontractor Biffa, has conducted a successful 12-month trial with a 26-tonne Electra refuse truck, based on the Mercedes-Benz Trucks Econic chassis.

Fitted with a 200kWH battery, the truck is charged overnight at the council’s depot, goes out to collect 10 tonnes of waste, discharges the load and then collects another 10 tonnes before returning to the depot.

Averaging 1,600 bin movements a day, this is all done on a single charge and carrying the same payload as its diesel equivalent. The average fuel cost for a diesel vehicle on this operation is approximately £100 per day, says Electra, whereas it now costs £12 per day in electricity.

Manchester is now poised to take delivery of 27 Electra RCVs in total, which will be delivered to the council by the end of March.

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Many smaller local authorities have also started to dip a toe into the water, such as single-truck orders from North Lanarkshire Council, Highways Scotland, Waltham Forest and Stockton on Tees, while more are looking to trial the technology this year.

“There’s quite a lot of demand from the municipal sector, because refuse vehicles are such high polluters.

We think every council will probably have at least one on their fleets in the next five years,” says Markstein.

And with the strong order pipeline already in place for the next 12 months, Electra believes it will be supplying around 10% of new waste sector trucks by the end of 2021.

Branching out

But the potential for Electra’s technology doesn’t just stop at the waste sector. Interest has been growing from fleet managers in a range of different operations, from temperature-controlled food deliveries to construction businesses.

Reynolds Catering, for example, has been operating an Electra refrigerated trailer for more than a year. It features a 60kWh battery, which uses approximately 17kWh to get to -22C and then operates at 3kWh, excluding the power generated from its fabric solar panels.

Historically, a trailer of this nature would have operated using a diesel auxiliary engine, irrespective of whether it was stationary or being driven, and the environmental impact can be significant, says Electra.

“Operating a traditional diesel-powered fridge, you use a lot of fuel even when the truck’s not operating by keeping it temperature controlled,” says Markstein.

“And obviously the other area that people don’t pick up on is that a traditional fridge can be very noisy. With Electra, it’s now virtually silent, which would be better for night-time deliveries or in residential areas.”

Meanwhile, Gregory Distribution, in partnership with customer Brewdog, is trialling the UK’s first 19-tonne rigid Electra e-Cargo urban refrigeration vehicle, based on an Iveco Eurocargo chassis.

A test model of the electric truck is currently being 22.2.21

deployed in different urban delivery scenarios. This will be followed by a permanent Electra e-Cargo joining the fleet this spring to be used making zero-emission deliveries to Brewdog’s central London bars by Gregory division ARR Craib Transport.

“We’re also building a construction vehicle,” says Markstein. “We’re designing an eight-wheel tipper grab for one of our customers on the Econic platform.”

In the aviation sector, Electra is building a scissor-lift vehicle for zero-emission transportation of catering supplies to aircraft.

What many of these sectors have in common, says Markstein, is low-mileage, back-to-hub operation, or reverse logistics. “At the moment you have to look at your operation and accept that in certain applications, EV won’t work. Whatever the pressures are on alternative fuels, it has to be deliverable,” says Markstein.

“But unfortunately legislation is often way ahead of technology. If you look at clean air zones, for example, putting charges in place doesn’t help when operators have no alternatives to diesel.”

Marketplace

Electra’s proposition means it can tailor-make its technology to suit different customers’ requirements.

This, Markstein believes, will stand the company in good stead to compete as other major truck manufacturers move further into the EV market.

“That’s why we’ve got a slight edge when you asked about the OEMs,” he says. “For customers, it’s often got to be very specific. We might not always have the buying power, but somehow it works as we probably have greater flexibility. We can produce an electric truck in 19 working days because we get the chassis and it is literally a case of bolting on the componentry such as the motors, the PTO and the batteries.”

But collaboration still remains key, with Electra and major European OEMs working hand in hand to drive forward the development of electric options for the freight sector. “Some of those are looking at us as technology partners,” says Markstein. n MotorTransport 23

MT Awards 2020 winner profile Customer Care Award Constant innovation and a focus on the little things that improve customer service are keeping DPD ahead of the home delivery pack

D

PD is now the UK’s leading domestic parcels carrier, with 10 consecutive years of profit growth. It has more than doubled turnover since 2013 and 2019 was another successful year, with turnover up £72m to £1.38bn. This put DPD at number one in the B2C parcels market, although the company does not include Royal Mail in this league table because of its large letters volume.

“We are number one in the domestic B2C market in terms of revenue,” says Tim Jones, DPDgroup marketing director. “We are number one in other ways too – we have topped the Money Saving Expert annual poll for eight years in a row and more than ever this year consumers have endorsed DPD by some distance as the best carrier in the market.

“That says two things – we have the spontaneous awareness, so when you say ‘parcels’ people think ‘DPD’, and also people rate the quality of what we do because the poll rates carriers from ‘great’ to ‘poor’.”

DPD has noticed rising awareness of its service levels among consumers. “The pandemic has made people even more aware of who is delivering to them,” says Jones. “The relationship on the doorstep between the driver and the consumer is bigger than ever. The pandemic has highlighted to people how important home delivery is and how much they rely on it.”

During the pandemic, DPD has delivered to more than 1.5 million new home addresses for the first time ever, because 45% of consumers have bought something online for the first time that they’d only ever bought in-store before.

“It is something people look forward to,” adds Jones.

“When you’re stuck at home, the stuff that is getting delivered to you is usually something good that you want.

With our consumers and their children they know exactly when we’re coming so they can watch the countdown and greet the driver at the door.

“We know this from the amount of messages we get, the snacks pinned to doors and drawings by children.

There is a lot of love out there for our drivers!

“Likewise, we love it when a local community values its DPD driver so much that they ask him to switch on the town’s Christmas lights, which is exactly what happened in St Ives, Cornwall last December. You can’t really put a price on that kind of emotional engagement.”

DPD delivers over 300 million parcels per year from 84 depots for 7,500 active customers, including leading brands such as ASOS, John Lewis, Selfridges and Next. Around 70% of DPD’s top 100 customers have now been with the carrier for five years or more. A survey in January 2019 of these largest customers found that 92% were “very satisfied” or “satisfied”, 93% were likely to remain a customer, and 68% would recommend DPD. “It’s not always the case that our customers put

24 MotorTransport

Sharing the love 100% of their volumes with us for a whole range of reasons,” says Jones. “They would want to offer their consumers choice between next-day or a deferred service.

There also might be some items sold by retailers that we don’t carry. We are less concerned about what percentage of their volume they give us than what percentage of what they give us we deliver right first time.”

Rise and shine

In 2018, DPD launched Project Shine, designed to put the shine back on DPD’s performance after what it admitted was – by its high standards – a below-par peak in 2017. This involved going to see its major customers and all of the directors spending time on the shop floor.

One of the outcomes that improved performance in 2019 was the DPD Intelligent Operations Centre (IOC), a 24/7 team drawn from different parts of the company.

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DPD group marketing director Tim Jones says the business has used customer feedback to power its service improvements

“The IOC has become a really crucial function within the business, especially during the pandemic,” says Jones.

“It helps us plan early and implement planning based on joined-up thinking between different teams. It helps in all kinds of unusual situations, not just peak, and has been one of our best initiatives in recent years.”

Small differences

A strong theme to emerge from DPD’s regular meetings with customers were requests to “put some cherries on the cake”, “come up with marginal gains” and “make the consumer experience more personalised”. One of them commented: “It’s the ‘tiny noticeable things’ [TNTs] that separate the truly great companies from the rest”.

As a result, DPD took customer closeness to a new level in 2019, with a series of small but significant initiatives to improve its doorstep experience. It did so using Design Space, a group of what was then 45,000 regular users of the DPD app, which had been downloaded by six million people in 2019 (a figure now approaching 10 million) who are willing to help DPD improve its service.

“This number is probably now closer to 60,000 people, making it by far the industry’s biggest focus group of people who are actively buying online,” says Jones. “We want to get ideas to give our customers a better service.

One of the reasons for using Design Space is that they are the people who experience our service on the doorstep, who look at the app, who look at the tracking and the nuances, and suggest ways to make it better.

“We aren’t going to reinvent the wheel and most of the suggestions are small tweaks to what is already a good experience. It enables us to go to our customers and say ‘This is what your consumers want, do you want us to do it?’ That is the final piece of the jigsaw.”

Several TNTs were launched in 2019: 22.2.21

Prove yourself – this means you can use a bank card instead of a utility bill to prove who you are when collecting a high-value parcel from a DPD site; Message the driver – allows consumers to contact the driver with useful information; You’re next – alerts a consumer when the driver is five minutes away, so that they can listen out for the doorbell.

DPD sent 750,000 messages in the first four months; In-flight – consumers can make changes to their delivery once it’s already out on the road and in 2019 a massive 22.4 million parcels were diverted to a neighbour or a DPD Pickup shop, for example, using this service, including 747,000 in the pre-Christmas cyber week; Rate my driver – consumers can now give instant feedback on their driver and the doorstep experience they’ve received, enabling DPD to reward and recognise its highest-performing people.

“It is hard to say which of these had the biggest impact, but my hunch is it was the ‘You’re next’ notification,” says Jones. “The comments on that were ‘Yes, the app lets me see when the driver is coming, but it would be really handy to have one last notification when I’m next’.

It is just getting down to that last detail to make sure they never miss the delivery.”

This marginal gains approach to customer care produced DPD’s best-ever service level of 98.95%, as well as powerful testimonials from both shippers and shoppers. These included this from a major retail customer: “The commitment we make to our customers is, ‘For us, it’s personal’ and DPD has been our preferred delivery partner for over five years because it helps us deliver on this crucial part of our brand promise.”

DPD’s record-equalling five MT Award wins in 2020 put the company (including its previous incarnations Parceline and Interlink) on 34 wins, one ahead of previous leader TNT. This fulfilled a long-held ambition for management and the company made a big noise about it among its 22,000 employees and 12,000 registered customers. “We are very proud of it,” says Jones. n

COPING WITH CHRISTMAS EVERY DAY While the 2020 Motor Transport Awards focused on 2019, well before the coronavirus struck, the long periods of lockdown since February 2020 have been described as “like Christmas every day” for the home delivery sector. How has DPD coped?

“It required rapid investment,” says Jones. “We quickly drew up the plan outlining how we needed to scale up. We had already planned to put in five new depots in 2020, but that became 15. Luckily we have a very good director of technical services who looks after all our property. They had to get out and find 10 additional sites that could be quickly converted into a fit-for-purpose depot.

“We are not just talking about sheds – our business is automated even in the depots. So we had to find the sites, get the automation and IT in, and crucially recruit the people capable of doing the work. Then finally we had to buy the vehicles.

“This is all done in-house by specialist teams with the full backing of our shareholder – it all added up to a tidy £200m of investment. That has given us the long-term platform to keep growing as the extra people and depots are now a permanent addition.”

MotorTransport 25

MT Awards 2020 winner profile Low Carbon Award

Current thinking Knowing when, where and how to cut carbon emissions from your fleet isn’t easy. But the John Lewis Partnership is leading the way by gradually switching from biomethane to electric

I

t’s interesting that in the same week that MT gets an update from the John Lewis Partnership (JLP) on its decarbonisation plans, a major new survey reveals that many smaller hauliers have put the topic firmly on the back-burner.

The Transporeon report concludes that while major European operators are investing in a low-carbon future, hauliers with less than 20 vehicles see little commercial benefit. In the current climate, cashflow remains their top priority.

That’s not to take anything away from companies with the resources to fully commit to decarbonisation, of course. And as the winner of our Low Carbon Award for 2020, JLP has a persuasive argument. The retailer’s entire heavy truck fleet will be running on biomethane by 2028 and the first of its electric vehicles for urban operation will launch in April.

The overall plan covers 600 heavy trucks, 750 refrigerated trailers, 1,750 home delivery vans and light trucks, and 20 farm vehicles. A rolling replacement programme is now being accelerated and all 600 HGVs will be running on biomethane by 2028.

Justin Laney, partner and general manager of central transport at JLP, also has a strong message for firms worried by the cost implications of following his lead.

“The risk is if you sit back and don’t get engaged, your competitors will suddenly be operating at much lower costs than you can,” he warns. “If you run a biomethane truck and your competitor is on diesel, then you’re saving £20,000 per truck over what his costs are.

“So pick the right technology and move with it at the right pace. Have confidence it will operate in the real world. Doing nothing is more risky than being engaged, even if you’re not buying trucks just yet.

“Yes, it will cost you more to buy it and think about filling stations. But the more miles you do, the more you save.”

To an extent, Laney’s views are at odds with those of Lee Holmes, transport operations manager with Wren Kitchens, who told MT last month that the zero-carbon

26 MotorTransport

argument lacks leadership and is therefore doomed to fail: “You cannot set targets for zero carbon with no strategy of who, how, why and where all these things are going to come together,” he suggested.

Conflicting industry opinion over the issue has become commonplace. Laney agrees that the future appears to be a confusing mix of alternatives – biofuel, gas, battery electric, hydrogen, even electrified roads. There’s no clear winner, no silver bullet, but JLP has done its homework and developed a long-term strategy that will ultimately see its heavy fleet switch from biomethane to electric.

The company is not only using telematics and aerodynamically optimised trailers, but also plans to eliminate fossil fuels from its home delivery fleet using EV manufacturer Arrival’s Generation 2 concept and other vehicles.

“Arrival’s electric vehicle is brilliant,” Laney explains.

“You can operate EVs at higher weights than you can diesel vans – you can go to 4.25 tonnes. To get an extra half tonne is a massive advantage in terms of productivity. That drives the business case.”

On the e-highway

JLP general manager of central transport Justin Laney believes businesses should lead by investing in new technology, which ultimately speeds their development

Electrification of JLP’s entire fleet should be completed by 2045. This will come in stages – from batteries and range extenders through to full electrification via e-highways and charging facilities.

Leading logistics expert Professor Alan McKinnon told MT recently that the e-highway idea championed

by Siemens “at first seemed like science fiction”. But after successful trials in Sweden and Germany, he’s now as keen on the proposal as Laney.

The plan would see trucks driving on the inside lanes of motorways linked via pantographs to overhead catenary 22.2.21

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and distributing it around the country is colossal. It’s got to be a viable, robust and reliable system. You need managed risk and assurance over the results of trials.”

Laney is also aware of the need to convince small- to medium-sized firms of the benefits: “The larger operators have the luxury of a fleet engineer and will really get engaged in it,” he says. “So it’s up to them to demonstrate it and take some of the pain in the trials.

“It’s no good if you need a massive expensive biomethane plant on your own premises. There’s got to be a public access network of filling stations. There’s got to be a second-hand market as well. It means the people who buy used trucks have access to the technology.

“You can’t do something space age – it has to be something that can be used very widely long term by everyone.”

But why isn’t simply switching to Euro-6 diesel enough to keep the government happy?

“For air quality – NOx – Euro-6 is fine,” Laney agrees.

“Policy makers don’t understand that. They want to ban diesel from city centres, but it’s not great on CO2 and that’s the problem – you’re tackling air quality, but not global warming and climate change.”

Picking a winner

cables. The electricity would charge the motor and recharge an on-board battery. The DfT is said to be “open minded” on its potential, despite the £20bn price tag.

But why the need to switch to electric if biomethane is working so well? And why is the e-highway idea of particular interest?

“There’s probably not enough biomethane for everybody,” Laney explains. “You can argue for battery electric, but the battery you’d need would be enormous, so that wouldn’t happen for the long-distance sector. Or you could argue hydrogen, but it’s a very inefficient technology and very expensive. So you arrive at catenary, which on the face of it seems madness because nobody’s going to build it until the trucks are there and nobody’s going to buy the trucks until the catenary’s there.

“But £20bn is less than a nuclear power station. It’s a fraction of HS2. There are a lot of infrastructure companies and investors interested in it.”

The other problem with biomethane, Laney says, is that it only provides an 80% reduction in carbon emissions. JLP is determined to get that to 100% with electricity, so is supporting a £100m e-highway trial from Immingham Docks to Doncaster. This will assess where each pentagraph and sub-station should be placed, the location of power sources, and other practicalities.

But ultimately any decision will be driven by a business case, the task being to make the best environmental solution the cheapest.

“There are two main competing schools of thought,” Laney says. “There’s a hydrogen lobby and a catenary lobby. I’m very confident that catenary would come out a lot cheaper than hydrogen – and be more doable because the challenge of generating that amount of hydrogen 22.2.21

JLP has a mix of biomethane and electric vehicles, but aims to be all-electric by 2045

The dilemma now facing truck makers, it seems, is which technology to back. Is a battery vehicle with a diesel range extender allowed for example?

“It’s a tricky one,” Laney admits. “Also important is that fleets like us involved in groceries, dried goods and parcels all return to base. You can have a filling station there, or one near it, and you have plenty of space in the chassis for gas tanks. But for an operator with a 6x2 three-axle truck who hasn’t got the space and is tramping around the country, it’s much more challenging. You’ve got to be sure you can fill up when you need to.

“And do you have a relatively short range of maybe 300 miles on CNG, or do you go ONG which is more difficult to manage?”

News last month that truck manufacturers are investing in hydrogen fuel-cell technology to avoid paying hefty emissions penalties is another interesting development.

Might that have an impact on JLP’s strategy?

“I’m not convinced by hydrogen,” Laney says. “The problem is it takes a lot of energy to make it in the first place and then a lot more to compress it to the levels people are talking about. And the fuel cells aren’t that efficient. You put 100 units of power in and get 20 out.

And the cost of the energy is higher. So it doesn’t compete very well with catenary or biomethane.”

He agrees that even some of the big operators are adopting a ‘wait and see’ approach.“Some are interested in biomethane, but nobody’s offering a hydrogen truck yet,” he says. “I don’t think anyone is seriously considering that. I always advise people to borrow a trial vehicle from us and see what they think. You need to be a smart follower. Don’t ignore it and hope it goes away.

“There’s also a lot of co-operation between companies on this. And there are some good bodies like the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership and the Low Carbon Working Group who will give good advice.

“This is genuinely a time of disruption and change,” Laney concludes. “There were people who only understood steam traction engines and didn’t think petrol and diesel would work. When the technology is established and is better and quicker, so you get more productivity and the fuel is cheaper, the whole market will move.” n MotorTransport 27

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