UK retailer Tesco is trialling the use of 25 extended-length refrigerated trailers as part of plans to cut its carbon emissions on the road.
The company will use trailers with a length of 15.65m as part of a trial, backed by the Department for Transport (DfT), to assess their safety and environmental impact. It will run the longer trailers, which have been built to adhere to the statutory turning circle regulations, out of its regional distribution centers in Avonmouth, Livingston and Peterborough.
The shift will enable Tesco to deliver six extra cages per delivery, reducing the number of deliveries and the associated CO2 emissions.
“That represents an increase in productivity of more than 13%, so the potential benefits in terms of reduced vehicle movements and lower emissions are obvious,” said Tesco’s fleet engineering manager, Cliff Smith.
“But we’ve only just set these trailers on the road, so we still have a fair bit of work to do in terms of driver-training and risk assessment at the delivery points before we come to any firm conclusions.”
Tesco’s ‘F plan’– fuller cages, fuller trucks, fewer miles and fuel economy – has enabled it to take 111 million miles off the road over the last five years, saving 142,000 tonnes of CO2.
The DfT trial is limited to 1,800 trailers and demand to participate has far exceeded the number of available places, according to the IGD. The cap is to designed to limit the number of trailers to 20% of each participants current fleet, or 180 trailers, whichever is lower.
The 15.65m trailer – the longer of the two trial sizes available – is proving to be the most popular and companies will be able to use the units until 2021 in order to recover the costs of their investment.