If your business has greatly reduced its carbon emissions by improving the efficiency of its operation or investing in alternative fuelled vehicles, then the Low Carbon Award, now in its 9^th year, is still open for entry.

Sponsored by Keyfuels, the Low Carbon Award is open for any third party or own account operators running 11 or more commercial vehicles to enter.

Judges of the Motor Transport Awards will want to see some, or all, of the following criteria:

• How you measure your carbon footprint, preferably using some recognised methodology;
• What opportunities you identified to reduce carbon emissions;
• What initiatives you have taken;
• The outcomes in terms of reduced emissions (such as total tonnes of CO₂ or grams of CO₂ per tonne kilometre) and improved efficiency.

Last year’s winner, Malcolm Logistics, worked with SDC to increase the capacity of its railfreight wagons from 26 pallets to 30 pallets by increasing the length, boosting capacity by 15%.

To enter the Low Carbon Award, click here or go to www.mtawards.co.uk

The entry deadline is 18 March 2016 and the winners will be revealed at the MT Awards Gala Dinner on 6 July in London.

The post Calling all low carbon logistics champions – enter the 2016 Motor Transport Awards now appeared first on Motor Transport.

Last year's event set a new record attendance with 2,451 visitors, and this year Cenex is anticipating beating this record.

Taking place on 9 and 10 September 2015, the event attracts a range of delegates from the automotive and energy & infrastructure sectors, government & local authorities, OEMs, and academia.

On Day 1, Anna Soubry, MP, minister for small business, industry and enterprise, will give the key note address in the main plenary hall, while Jaguar Land Rover will be running a workshop on the Evoque_e project.

The Sustainable Vehicle Technology Conference will take place on 10 September while Innovate UK will hold a workshop on the Low Carbon Truck Trial during the afternoon on Day 2.

A delegation of international visitors will be attending as guests of the Automotive Investment Organisation of UK Trade and Investment.

Robert Evans, CEO of Cenex, said the 2015 event has a "more diverse and comprehensive seminar programme including over 100 presenters across four parallel sessions".

"We have also extended the steering pad resulting in more vehicles available for a ride and drive experience," he added.

According to Joe Greenwell, CEO of UKTI's Automotive Investment Organisation, the event provides the ideal platform to showcase the UK's expertise in low-carbon vehicles.

"Over £1bn of industry and government money is being invested in the Advanced Propulsion Centre to power the design and commercialisation of low-carbon engines and transmissions, while a further £900m in the subsidies and infrastructure is being provided for ultra-low emission vehicles," said Greenwell.

On the evening of 9 September, the Low Carbon Champions Awards will be presented at a networking dinner. Freight in the City is sponsoring the Low Carbon Heavy Duty Vehicle Manufacturer of the Year category at the awards.

The post Two days to go until the Cenex Low Carbon Vehicle Event 2015 appeared first on Motor Transport.

Meeting the new target would mean a reduction of more than 14,000 deaths or serious injuries over the next five years.

The commitment comes as Transport for London (TfL) published the full London road casualty figures for 2014.

According to the 2014 Road Casualties and Collisions report, the number of people killed or seriously injured in London was down 7% to 2,167 (2013: 2,324), which means London has met the Mayor’s previous target of a 40% reduction in casualties six years early.

The number of cyclists killed or seriously injured in 2014 was down 12% to 432 (2013: 489), while the number of children killed or seriously injured fell to the lowest level recorded, down 11% to 166 (2013: 187).

"These figures show quite clearly that road safety in the Capital continues to head in the right direction,” said Johnson. “However, with a growing population and more people on our roads, we’ll have to pull out all the stops to ensure that such positive trends continue. Today, we’re setting a new target to halve the number of people killed or seriously injured on London’s roads by 2020.”

Leon Daniels, MD of Surface Transport at TfL, said: “Every death and injury on our roads is one too many and we will be relentless in pursuing the Mayor’s new target. The wide ranging action that we and our partners are taking includes major safety improvements to roads, junctions and cycling infrastructure, action on dangerous lorries, tough enforcement and a programme of education and training to help people use the roads safely.”

The post Boris pushes for a reduction of 14,000 deaths or serious injuries in London by 2020 appeared first on Motor Transport.

Members of the CLOCS team, along with representatives from Lafarge Tarmac, Cemex, FM Conway and SiG took the audience through a range of presentations covering the standards, cultural change and technology shifts which are associated with CLOCS.

In addition, Road Safety GB, in association with Scania, took the opportunity to launch a new road safety initiative for schools.

Looking out for vulnerable road users is a crucial part of the Freight in the City safety message and we’ve got hold of the presentation for your review:

CLOCS: Looking out for vulnerable road users

The post CLOCS presentation from Tip-ex 2015 available for download now appeared first on Motor Transport.

The one-day Freight in the City Expo will combine seminars, an exhibition and guided tours all aimed at ensuring visitors have a comprehensive understanding of the issues around urban logistics.

“There are many challenges associated with delivering goods and services in the cities, with new standards, exclusion zones and charging schemes emerging,” said Andy Salter, MD of Road Transport Media.

“For all those involved in this sector, whether as a policy maker, consignor or commercial vehicle operator, it is essential everyone is aware of the implications and future requirements for urban logistics. Freight in the City is a forum to bring all the key stakeholders together to share ideas, information and solutions.

Freight in the City Expo will take place on 27 October at Alexandra Palace, London and will be free to attend.

“Our ambition is for the Expo to become an annual event for those involved in urban logistics to share information, best practice and their solutions to the challenges of using commercial vehicles in the city,” added Salter.

For more information about the Expo and to register your interest, click here.

The post Freight in the City Expo promises to solve sustainable urban freight challenges appeared first on Motor Transport.

Quiet Cities will take place on 25 and 26 November 
2014 at Twickenham Stadium. The two-day event will feature a full conference programme, a networking dinner, exhibition, and live demonstrations of the latest quiet logistics equipment.

TfL will share London’s best practice on retiming deliveries and showcase its work on facilitating out-of-hours 
deliveries, while representatives of overseas cities will discuss the work they have implemented to allow off-
peak deliveries.

“Transport for London is proud to sponsor the Quiet Cities global summit,” said Ian Wainwright, TfL head of freight and fleet.

“Freight in London relies on the capital’s road network but the demands placed on it are changing," he added. “Our role at TfL is to ensure the logistics industry can sustainably serve London’s growing economy and population.

“Moving deliveries out of the morning peak is central to TfL’s Delivering a Road Freight Legacy. We know that with the right level of support deliveries can take place at different times and still suit customers, residents and operators.”

DHL added: “Being able to deliver off-peak and retime deliveries as required is essential for the long-term health of the logistics sector.”

For more information and to register your interest, 
go to quietcities.com or email laura.hailstone@roadtransport.com

The post Out-of-hours urban deliveries will be the focus of Quiet Cities summit appeared first on Motor Transport.

Chris Ness, formerly head of specialist fleets at Ryder, believes that by navigating through the myriad of different truck deals available direct from the manufacturers; analysing the many vehicle maintenance service offers; and assessing the asset finance specialists, an operator can find the right transport solution for their business, at the lowest cost.

“There’s no comparison site for purchasing a truck or trailer because there are so many different buying arrangements across the industry. But with my 12 years experience in the commercial vehicle sector I want to work with operators to help them benchmark all the different options and ultimately save them money,” Ness told Motortransport.co.uk.

“The buying arrangement that an operator has may appear to be the most competitive and the one they’re happy with, but without considering all the other options, they may not be taking advantage of additional available cost savings,” he added.

Any operator wishing to find out more or to trial Ness’s benchmarking procurement method should email him direct chris.ness@ccnsolutions.co.uk

The post Free truck procurement advice for operators appeared first on Motor Transport.

Close to 200 companies involved in the rental and leasing of trucks, trailers and vans took part in last year’s research. This year we want to capture every single business in the sector.

Every participant will receive a report of the full research results, with a key statistics section highlighting how their business relates to the rest of the sector as a whole.

A selection of the survey data will once again be turned into a supplement featuring the top 200 rental and leasing companies, giving a detailed analysis of the sector for readers of Motor Transport.

For more information and to take part, email: laura.hailstone@roadtransport.com

To view last year's research, click here.

The post Calling all rental, leasing and contract hire companies: take part in CV Informer 2014 appeared first on Motor Transport.

Alex Fiddes, director of operations at DVSA - formerly Vosa and the DSA - said the trial will kick off in the middle of March and run through until September.

“The pilot involves 25 technical staff; we’ve created a new management team dedicated solely to the pilot area, and we’re in the process of meeting with ATF operators in south Wales to find out what their requirements are and explore what they’d like to do under the new pilot – how can they extend their day for example,” said Fiddes.

He said the reason DVSA picked south Wales as the test region is because there is a real mix of transport environments.

“There’s a mix of ATFs from the very rural areas of south Wales to the big city areas such as Cardiff where those operators will really want to stretch the day out and grow their market. I think we will see some ways of working remain very similar to the old arrangements, while some will involve much earlier starts and two testers at a site,” he added.

According to Fiddes, some of the larger logistics operators have said if they could get one or two vehicles tested earlier in the morning, the utilisation of the fleet would improve and they’d benefit from the cost avoidance of hiring a replacement truck for the day.

Currently the earliest start for testing is 8am.

“The reason we’re doing a pilot is to make absolutely certain that when we roll NGT out nationally, that it meets the majority of industry’s needs. We believe we understand what industry wants; but there’s no better way of validating it than with live operators.

“I hope that at 6am we can start testing vehicles but it might turn out that operators don’t want 6am, they want 6.30am for example. So we really need to test the whole supply chain from those who present the vehicle to those that run ATFs,” added Fiddes.

After the pilot ends, Fiddes said any necessary tweaks will be made and then NGT will be rolled out nationally.

The post ATF Next Generation Testing pilot to commence in Wales appeared first on Motor Transport.

The merger of the DSA and Vosa into one single agency, due for completion by 1 April 2014, is creating a 4,600-strong organisation, with annual turnover of £400m and responsibility for setting, testing and enforcing driver and vehicle standards in Great Britain.

The man at the helm of this new agency is Alastair Peoples, formerly Vosa chief executive since August 2009, and he will be responsible for streamlining the two most important regulatory bodies that road transport operators deal with on a day-to-day basis.

Although DSA and Vosa both sat under the DfT, the two organisations are culturally very different, as Peoples revealed in an interview with Commercial Motor in October, so a lot of work is needed to bring the two together. On top of that the industry wants a regulator that delivers a better service and better value for money. Peoples has the power to do just that, but he also has the power to make a mess of it too. Either way there will be long term consequences for all in the industry.

All eyes will be on Peoples in 2014 to see how he shapes the new agency and whether it delivers all the promised improved service and efficiencies for commercial operators.

The post Power Players 2013: Alastair Peoples, chief executive, Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency appeared first on Motor Transport.