As the UK haulage industry moves to electrification, the key consideration will not actually be range, but time stopped. Downtime is not only the cost of the charge, but the expense of the driver not driving after his break, the knock-on effects to logistics, and consequently the hit to productivity.

Range for an electric HGV at the end of the decade will not be a problem, in itself. If an HGV has a range of 250 miles, at an average speed of 50 mph it’s going to be able to run for up to five hours, so beyond when the driver would have to stop for a break anyway, and also cover many of the routes required of it in the UK in one go, too.

The big question is what happens when it has to stop, and how best hauliers can make use of that downtime. Every second should be spent getting as much power into its batteries as possible, in the most cost-efficient way.

In its Rapid Charging Fund announcement, the Government said it would be committing £950m to improve charging infrastructure on the motorway and major A roads’ network, and that by 2035, it expected around 6,000 high-powered, open-access charge points across England’s motorways and major A roads.

Big numbers sound good. But crunch the data for actual charging requirements on the ground, and a different picture appears.

Firstly, it’s worth looking at the requirement for charging HGVs, and then how you supply this demand. Scania, for example, expects that half of all its vehicle sales by the end of this decade will be powered by electric, and claims its current electric models can be fully charged in less than 90 minutes at 375kW.

But the question will be: where can you get 375kW charging speed available for every charging point, and how can you guarantee there will be enough network capacity not just when one is hooked up, but multiple vehicles all demanding the same amount, at the same time, easily drawing multi megawatts from the supply?

If you have a motorway service station with charging facilities for 15 HGVs, all with 500kWh batteries, who turn up during the day and need to be back out on the road an hour-and-a-half later fully charged, you’ll need somewhere between 4MW to 5MW of power, depending on how much the batteries were depleted when the trucks arrived.

And what about truck stops? Usually, they’re large concrete pans, surrounded by fencing with stopover facilities, near the main A road network and offer parking for dozens of lorries. They’re often not run by large multi-national service station companies, but by local, independent businesses or local authorities. The DfT estimates there are around 21,000 lorries parked up each night within three miles of the strategic road network. They’re going to need a lot of chargers, in the right places. Where, and how will this fit into the overall charging network?

This is where availability of funding will be key, because these stops provide an essential service for the haulage industry, but are not set up to provide the vast amounts of power their customers might want overnight.

In terms of requirements, filling a 500kWh battery pack overnight at a work depot in say, 10 hours requires charging speeds of at least 50kW per vehicle. It is possible. But a site that has 20 trucks parked up overnight charging, would need in excess of 1 MW power to be available for the full period to charge.

That’s a lot of power, but actually it is possible to produce, and without the need to build new substations or infrastructure costing hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of pounds and taking years to implement next to every place HGVs park up, whether it’s Aunty Annie’s A1 Truck Stop or a motorway service station. This can be done with smart charging networks.

In smart charging networks, capacity is created in the AC distribution upstream, on both low voltage (as supplied to houses and small businesses) and medium voltage (supplied to larger businesses and factories) supplies, but the real benefit results in adding resilient and flexible DC capacity downstream (locally, at the site, in other words), using battery storage, solar PV, green fuel generators or various other forms of generation, which are then linked to a network of chargers and battery storage.

This capacity is used and held for when it’s really needed, providing speeds into the multi MW range which will reduce charging times to a fraction of what they are today. This is in line with market expectations within the next one to two years as the MegaWatt Charging Scheme (MCS) comes to fruition to facilitate the charging of fleets of larger vehicles such as trucks and buses.

At TPS, our Smart Fleet system, with its Velox chargers and Potenza inverter, will deliver these solutions now for both combined charging scheme (CCS) and future MCS charging without the huge cost and engineering needed to upgrade power supply infrastructure in these often remote, or logistically awkward locations. Charging huge batteries efficiently, in large numbers at the same time, on the road network is doable. Additionally, our Smart Fleet system has bi-directional capabilities which means it can export power back to the grid, the local consumer loads and even other electric vehicles when needed.

By applying new technologies and different thinking to the approach to charging infrastructure - in particular using the power of smart networks and clever management in support of the grid – it is possible to deliver all the power the haulage industry needs to keep rolling effectively and efficiently, wherever and whenever trucks may be stopping.

Carlos Neves, CEO, Turbo Power Systems

The post Electric HGVs will require a lot of power to recharge – but there are smarter ways appeared first on Motor Transport.

Shortly after it entered insolvency proceedings, administrator David Kemp said many haulage firms had struggled during 2022, blaming rising fuel prices and the professional driver shortage as well as many companies in the industry operating under the pressure of thin margins."

motortransport.co.uk 8 September 2023

So, we have:

“Rising fuel prices”;
“Professional driver shortage”;
“Companies operating under the pressure of thin margins”.

Let us take the first point, “rising fuel prices”. Not a lot the industry can do here it’s been a contentious issue for many years and every transport operator is in the same position.

Despite the decades of grumblings from the RHA, the government appears not to be doing much for the industry concerning fuel prices, and why would it? The tax the industry pays is considerable. Transport is, in the the words of Sir Humphrey from Yes Minister, “a vote loser”.

Moving onto “professional driver shortage”. During the RHA international conferences in the 1980s the issues of driver shortages within the next three decades was mentioned. It was suggested that the trade bodies form a section, funded by the industry, to take a “road show” similar to those of the high-end consultants such as PwC and EY to visit universities to interview interested and suitable candidates.

This road show would take the industry into schools and collages to enthuse and entice young people into the industry. Did anything happen? No of course not. Now there is a 50,000+(TBC) driver and general staff shortage in the UK alone.

Onto “companies operating under the pressure of thin margins”. So why is this? Are there more transport companies in the market than needed? If that was the case, why is there a driver shortage?

The bulk of the road transport network is operated by companies that operate one to 10 trucks. By the very nature of the operation the vehicle can only work for 25% of the seven-day day week.

Just imagine a Boeing or Airbus arriving in Heathrow and the pilot telling the ground staff “park it over there and I’ll be back in 12 hours after my break”.

Of course not; if airlines worked like that they would be bankrupt in a week. The plane lands, is cleaned, refuelled, reloaded, recrewed and off within an hour or so.

The industry needs to become more efficient if margins are to be increased and for that more staff are needed. There is the problem - where do they come from?

I am not staying these are the only issues and solutions but for the industry to improve, root and branch changes are needed, someone has to start the process.

Graham Manchester, former haulier, Poole

The post Root and branch changes required if haulage industry is to survive appeared first on Motor Transport.

The GNSS annual market is now valued at over €150bn (£129bn) through the explosive growth of location-based services offered through smartphones, watches and automotive vehicles. Services like Google Maps, Waze and Uber have become part of our everyday lives and our transport, logistics and financial systems are highly dependent upon these services.

Despite its remarkable capabilities, GNSS does face certain limitations, with one of the most significant challenges being multipath interference. This occurs when satellite signals reflect off buildings, metalwork or other reflective objects before reaching the receiver in your smartphone, watch or automobiles. These reflected signals can cause significant inaccuracies in the measurements, which degrades the overall performance of a position calculation. Performance degrades significantly the more reflective objects that are in the environment in which you find yourself, typical of dense modern cities.

With couriers working daily in the hardest GNSS environments, it becomes almost impossible for companies to know exactly what’s happening as drivers are dispatched. Logistics businesses require systems that function seamlessly in all operational environments, so that end user customers receive the highest level of customer service.

Amazon alone ships 1.6m packages per day. Those parcels need to be delivered to the doors of customers, many of which live and work in modern dense urban jungles. Each driver is required to deliver between 250 and 300 packages a day to over 200 stops. Efficiency is absolutely key to success.

The cost of poor positioning can be substantial. Errors in positioning result in significant economic consequences from inefficient routing, increased fuel consumption, delays to delivery schedules and lower customer satisfaction.

Current GNSS receivers need to supply higher levels of accuracy, reliability and security across these critical industries and in all environments — suburban, urban and skyscraper jungles. This challenge can be solved by upgrading the way that GNSS receivers interpret satellite signals; a simple but seismic change for this foundational technology.

Using modern signal processing and machine learning techniques, the problem of multipath and spoofing can be solved, dramatically improving the performance for smartphones, wearables and vehicles in the deepest of urban environments.

Scott Pomerantz, CEO, FocalPoint

The post Satnavs have changed our world – but could still do better appeared first on Motor Transport.

DPD UK were again the big winners on the night, picking up another three trophies – Home Delivery Operator of the Year, Urban Operator of the Year and the inaugural New Talent Development Award, taking their overall tally to 42 wins.

Another new award for 2023, Sustainable Transport, went to EV Cargo while Goldstar took the coveted Haulier of the Year title for the first time.

The Fleet Truck of the Year went to the Volvo FM – although this is the third win for the Swedish manufacturer it was the first for the versatile FM. Clean Fleet Van of the Year went to the Ford Pro E-Transit for the second year running.

XPO Logistics and Saint-Gobain UK & Ireland took the Partnership Award while Think Logistics founder Steve Granite received the Service to Industry Award for his efforts to raise the profile of the logistics industry among school and college students.

The evening also saw the announcement of the three latest inductees to the Motor Transport Hall of Fame, Robert Wilcox, Bob Swain and Alan Jones OBE.

The evening raised £22,000 for Transaid through auctions of some amazing prizes including a trip for two to the Italian MotoGP and the casino.

The Awards were presented by the hilarious Jack Dee and coverage of what is still the biggest event in road transport can be found on the MT Awards website.

The 2024 Motor Transport Awards will be held on September 4 at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel – see you there.

The post Another great night as we reveal the winners of the 2023 Motor Transport Awards appeared first on Motor Transport.

The need to drive decarbonisation has never been greater. Increased energy costs – which still remain above pre-pandemic levels despite the drop of wholesale gas prices by 46% since last June – along with volatile weather conditions has sparked alarm bells across the globe.

While UK prime minister Rishi Sunak MP has recently sanctioned hundreds of new oil and gas licences for the UK, potentially bringing the country’s 2050 net zero target into question, our industry must continue pressing on with its sustainability targets.

To assist in driving the industry forward in matching the UK’s goal of bringing down greenhouse emissions to net zero, the Cold Chain Federation launched its own ‘Net zero project’ in 2020, which aims to help the industry meet the challenge of decarbonising the UK economy.

Data on the impact the cold chain sector has on the UK’s overall carbon footprint is not clear-cut, but it has been estimated that food refrigeration systems – which are a major element of the wider cold chain network – account for approximately 2% to 4% of total greenhouse gas emissions in the UK.

With this in mind there is a responsibility on the industry to press forward with sustainability plans, not only to help fight to climate change but also to future-proof temperature-controlled businesses in the years and decades to come.

The need to invest into alternative means of energy has never been greater. With environmental sustainability high on the global agenda in a bid to tackle the ever-worsening climate crisis, the industry has a responsibility to play its part in helping to drive forward its sustainability plans.

Understandably as a consequence of the rise in inflation and interest rates, investment into alternative energy sources may have to be put on hold for the time being for some temperature-controlled operators, but compromising on sustainability plans altogether is very much a false economy.

We are noticing year on year that, as the nation becomes more acutely aware of the harm greenhouse gases causes to the environment, more onus is being placed on the industry to think greener in every aspect of operation. This is particularly apparent with regards to buy-in from customers both existing and new when they learn of our ongoing investment programme into renewables.

Therefore, while safeguarding the environment is a significant benefit of considering alternative sources of energy, there can also be long-term financial benefits for operators. Implementing energy-saving measures can lead to reduced operational costs over time through lowering energy bills, as well as provide operators the opportunity to identify areas within their business which are inefficient, replacing them with more sustainable processes, systems, or technologies.

Maximising efficiency and investing in alternative energy will be key to offsetting emissions for temperature-controlled operators in the UK and beyond, and capitalising upon new and innovative technologies is a fundamental driver for reducing carbon emissions – something that our company has successfully integrated into its operation in recent years, and is already experiencing tangible benefits as a result.

As a progressive business, we have consistently explored sustainability opportunities when available and conducted an ongoing investment programme in its site facilities to ensure maximum energy efficiency is retained.

This has included converting our entire lighting system across both our sites to LED as well as upgrading the insulation used to line the building to better thermal performance panels, ensuring as little cold escapes as possible. This year, we will be introducing a number of ground breaking renewable energy processes to further reduce our greenhouse emissions as well as general dependency on non-renewable energy sources.

John Davidson, MD of temperature-controlled solutions specialist JS Davidson

The post Cold chain must remain focused on net zero target to reap sustainability and efficiency rewards appeared first on Motor Transport.

While 2022 saw initial confidence and and increased business activity, the second half of the year was
affected by high energy costs and cost inflation, the report found.

Despite the reduction of fuel duty by 5ppl in March 2022, the survey found the greatest deterioration in business performance was due to high fuel prices. Respondents also reported issues with the recruitment of skilled staff and a decline in the clarity of trading arrangements with the EU.

But overall business performance was perceived to have improved by January 2023, with 34% of survey respondents having better economic expectations for 2023 compared to 2022.

Logistics UK chief executive David Wells said: “While the initial months of 2022 witnessed a resurgence in consumer spending and increased business activity, in the second half of the year the logistics sector navigated a difficult economic climate due to a global energy price shock – triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine – in addition to changing trade processes driven by Britain’s exit from the EU and the increasing need to decarbonise.

"Nevertheless, our industry continued to demonstrate its adaptability with the UK trading £414bn in exports and £644bn in imports in 2022.

"The outlook for overall business performance continues to be encouraging with 77% of survey respondents noting the same or better economic expectations for 2023 compared to 2022."

In 2021, logistics businesses added £163bn to the UK economy and generated just over £1tn in revenues, a 19.2% increase on the previous year and the same as 2019. The logistics industry in the UK comprises 227,000 logistics enterprises, directly employing 1.8 million people across England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. This is in addition to the 890,000 people employed in logistics roles in non-logistics businesses, meaning there are 2.7 million people employed in logistics overall.

However, the UK’s competitiveness in logistics has declined, according to the World Bank’s 2023 Logistics Performance Index (LPI) report. The UK was ranked 19th on the performance indicator, a significant drop compared to the average placement of 6th between 2012 and 2018. The fall in ranking from 2018 to 2023 is associated with Brexit-related changes that contributed to a decline in on-time shipments and efficient customs processes, as well as challenges in tracking shipments.

The post Fuel prices remain top concern for operators in Logistics UK industry survey appeared first on Motor Transport.

Predicting requirements seven or eight months ahead is always a nightmare, and this year looks particularly fraught. There is, of course, a cost of living crisis but strangely, although full figures are not yet in, it looks as though consumer spending in the Easter peak held up much better than expected – indeed, anecdotally it appears that some retailers and suppliers were short of stock as demand exceeded their somewhat gloomy expectations.

Price inflation remains painfully high, but may decline rapidly over the course of the year. Or we may be trapped in a rerun of the high-inflation Seventies – both views are available, often from the same economic forecasters.

One rather firmer prognostication is that e-retailing seems to have found its new natural level – around a quarter of retail trade. So omnichannel is the way forward for many retailers, with the additional complexity that this brings to warehouse space planning.

Given the uncertainties, many firms will have held back on committing to space for the winter peak, and some, with pressure on margins and anticipating subdued trading, will have decided not to renew leases on some of their existing estate.

That in itself is no bad thing – in our experience it very rarely makes sense for a business to scale its ‘permanent’ warehousing facilities to accommodate the highest peaks in demand. This ties up capital, or drains cashflow, whilst making an inefficient use of scarce and increasingly expensive labour and other resources during the off-peaks – which for many firms is most of the year.

And this year, particularly, is not a good time to be entering into long-term space commitments. Despite some big names, especially in e-commerce, rationalising their warehousing estate, quality space is still in short supply, whilst landlords are facing eye-watering increases in the interest they are paying.

Unsurprisingly this is reflected in rents; the agents Colliers report that in 2022 there was a year-on-year increase of 10.5% in rents for large (100,000sq ft plus) units, and 13.2% on smaller and multi-let facilities and, say the agents “these will continue to rise, albeit at a slower pace”. Meanwhile, the bills for rates, electricity and other utilities, insurance and all the other costs of operating even a half-empty warehouse continue to increase.

The solution is to adopt strategies that embrace and make a virtue of short-term leasing. While the headline rates per square foot may look high, the business is only paying these for the time that the space is needed, and in practice rates are often highly competitive as the space provider is keen to see any return on what is otherwise an underutilised or idle asset.

Nor is the renter paying throughout the year to heat, light, staff and otherwise maintain largely empty space. And often, if a business moves in to take up another company’s spare capacity (which may be because that company is over-provided, or because its peak requirements are at a different time of year) many of the operating costs, perhaps even including labour and IT, are already paid for, so the renting company is charged something closer to the marginal rate rather than the full cost. It can even be that facilities are available already equipped with levels of productivity-enhancing IT and automation that the business would struggle to resource or justify on its own account.

However, the flexibility offered by a strategy that includes short-term lets isn’t just for Christmas. It can allow a supplier or retailer to experiment – with new product lines, with new regional markets or new customers, with new distribution chain architectures, with different blends and approaches to the physical store/e-commerce balance – at relatively little long-term risk.

Such a strategy may even lead to semi-permanent arrangements: an understanding that the business is minded to take the same space for the same three months every year.

Bis Henderson Space has many years of experience in helping companies ‘right size’ their peak space requirements, and then securing the right temporary space: right in terms of cost, location, and facilities, from bare sheds to space in fully-manned and equipped distribution centres. We have built an extensive network of space partners who, sometimes occasionally, sometimes predictably year-on-year, have more warehousing than they need. They are often keen not only for the extra income but for the productivity and efficiency improvements – such as being able to maintain a fully employed permanent staff – that full occupation of their facility can yield.

We help companies find and implement mutually beneficial deals surprisingly quickly – but be warned: an increasing number of companies are now actively seeking the benefits of including short-term accommodation as part of their warehousing strategy – and Christmas is closer than you think!

Steve Purvis, MD, Bis Henderson Space

The post Banish the nightmare of predicting and right-sizing peak warehouse space appeared first on Motor Transport.

There are 61 companies up for awards in the 19 categories with new faces joining some more familiar names.

Multiple award winner DPD UK has made the cut in six categories including our two new awards for this year, Sustainable Transport and New Talent Development.

DFDS Logistics is shortlisted in four categories including Customer Care where it is up against… DPD UK along with Browns Distribution Services, Speedy Freight and Walkers Transport.

Walkers is also in with a chance of picking up the coveted Haulier of the Year award but faces stiff competition from Boughey Distribution, Goldstar, Stephen Sanderson Transport and Willmotts Transport.

Our 67 independent expert judges spent a difficult two days at the Hilton Leicester concluding their verdicts in person after a first online round of rigorous assessment of another excellent crop of entries.

The winners will be announced on September 6 at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel. Book your places now to hear first who the winners are.

The post Excitement mounts as the Motor Transport Awards 2023 shortlist is revealed appeared first on Motor Transport.

With Traffic Commissioners responsible for licensing and regulating operators of HGVs, PSVs and local bus services, any company operating either goods vehicles or buses will be affected by the review and its recommendations. If they’re adopted, they’ll amount to the single greatest change to the transport regulatory regime this century.

What are the key takeaways?

Traffic Commissioners are still very much required

In August 2021, the DfT launched a consultation on the future of the Traffic Commissioner function. All options were on the table, including whether Traffic Commissioners were even required at all.

To this point, the review is clear: they are. And this should come as no surprise. The document notes the volume of both freight traffic and bus journeys in the UK, and the resulting "significant public interest in ensuring [these] industries are well regulated".

This is hard to argue with. One only needs to compare UK road safety statistics with those of other jurisdictions with less-robustly regulated transport industries for the benefit of our current system to become clear.

Individual Traffic Commissioners to be replaced by a single tribunal

This does not, however, mean business as usual going forward. The Review recognises that the current model as it stands is outdated and in need of reform, noting that its organisational structure holds "no exact equivalence across government, representing a significant divergence from centrally produced guidance and…best practice".

The solution, it says, is to create a single specialist tribunal, to be led by a tribunal president, rather than a senior Traffic Commissioner.

The practical effect of this would be to give the Traffic Commissioners far greater powers over how their public inquiries and regulatory proceedings would be run. There would be the introduction of tribunal rules and the power to make costs orders against frivolous applicants and those operators who fail to comply with the directions of the tribunal.

Such changes would bring the Traffic Commissioner function much more closely into line with other equivalent licensing tribunals. It also raises the prospect of the new Tribunal having greater ‘teeth’ to take action against operators who fall short of the high standards expected.

Higher fees for larger operators

On the question of fees, the review is again straight-talking, describing the current structure as "flawed".

The fixed fee per licence model receives particular criticism. Under the present system an operator spends £257 to apply for a licence, £401 at the point of issue, and a further £401 once every five years to continue the licence. This is the same fee whether an operator runs one or 1,000 vehicles.

Aside from obvious arguments over fairness, there is a more pressing need to consider a reform to the current fee structure: in 2020/21 the licensing service income was just over £13m, whereas expenditure over the same period was almost £18m. The proposal is that this deficit is paid for by the industry, including through the introduction of graduated fees.

Whilst it would take changes to primary legislation to implement these fee reforms, it is not hard to see how the DfT might decide to take this forward as a priority, if for no other reason than to balance the books. If so, this would certainly mean increased costs coming down the line for larger fleet operators.

A new blueprint for the future?

This is not the first review to recommend reform to the Traffic Commissioner function. Previous recommendations have either not been taken up or have been watered down so much that they have amounted to no more than tinkering around the edges. With the need for primary legislation change, a general election on the horizon and limited parliamentary time available, it remains to be seen how many of these latest recommendations will become reality.

If there is to be prioritisation, it seems likely that the DfT will want to focus on licence fee reform. This may well be seen as the magic bullet that would address many of the other problem areas with the current system and result in a cost-neutral regulatory regime funded in an equitable way by the industry that it supports.

We’ll all be following closely.

Chris Powell, principal associate and road transport regulatory specialist, Weightmans

The post Is fundamental reform of our Traffic Commissioner regulation regime on the horizon? appeared first on Motor Transport.

With a professional relationship that spans almost 10 years and shared values regarding the impact their operations will have on future generations, it was during a production meeting in 2022 to discuss the question of sustainability that the shared initiative was brought to fruition.

KB Event introduced non-palm oil HVO to its operation – the first event haulier to do so – in 2018. Although this alternative is more expensive than traditional diesel, since rolling out HVO biofuel to its client base, KB has seen a growing increase in those choosing it as a more responsible way to fulfil their events.

Although the cost increase taken over the total cost of an event or tour is not in any way prohibitive, it is, unfortunately, still a budget consideration and often agencies and management companies are left with a difficult decision when trying to meet cost expectations versus striving to produce a sustainable event.

However, in a bold first move from a UK event agency, Showcase has committed to running all of its events – regardless of whether or not their customer foots the bill – on non-palm oil HVO.
Showcase MD Ben Collings insists this is not a “PR stunt on the back of an industry buzz-word” but is a “moral commitment to securing my children’s and grandchildren’s future and about the impact Showcase is having on that”.

I recently spoke about sustainable events at the Green Events and Innovations conference in London, telling delegates that Showcase is as passionate about the question of sustainable events as we are. They, like us, continue to do everything they can to proactively minimise their impact on the environment, rather than simply reacting to industry pressure and the latest hot topic.

We are pleased to add Showcase to KB Event’s growing list of HVO biofuel clients and to see the continued shift towards more sustainable events across the marketplace. Working with Showcase on this campaign was a no-brainer for us and we are hugely proud to continue to be their nominated trucking supplier.

Richard Burnett, MD, KB Event

The post Showcasing our commitment to more sustainable live events appeared first on Motor Transport.