Digital Catapult, a deep tech innovation organisation, has released the results of a pilot programme to address the environmental impact of empty trucks on roads across the UK.
The initiative trialled a new solution to decarbonise the transport logistics sector, demonstrating a potential to cut CO2e emissions by 15-30 per cent.
UK logistics play a critical role in driving economic growth, contributing £163 billion ($205 million) to the economy, and serving as a vital link between the UK and the global market.
UK freight however accounts for 31 per cent of all UK transport CO2 emissions, and statistics from the Department for Transport (DfT) show that 30 per cent of trucks on UK roads are running with empty loads.
The pilot programme demonstrated how deep tech can support decarbonisation without compromising efficiency, addressing the sector’s ongoing challenges.
The pilot scheme was delivered by Digital Catapult in partnership with AF Blakemore & Son Ltd, the company behind SPAR convenience stores, to explore how a shared digital infrastructure could establish more intelligent vehicle slot filling, routing, and tracking.
Scaling of the solution would allow competing logistics providers to safely share information on available truck space across their collective fleets, without the need for a single party to have full control or visibility of the entire system.
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The solution was trialled in a real-world industrial environment and saw distributed ledger technology (DLT) and the Internet of Things (IoT) combined with an algorithm developed by project partner Fuuse, to optimise route planning and truck use.
The initiative successfully aligned vehicle transport capacity with the shipping needs of various UK organisations. As a result, AF Blakemore & Son Ltd, one of the UK’s leading family-owned businesses, experienced a 37 per cent reduction in overall transport costs and a 9 per cent improvement in vehicle fill rates.
