News

Sustainable distribution is a new buzzword - and a debate taking place this week will ask the question: 'Will the environment make us think the unthinkable?' This debate follows a survey on fleet efficiency for the Department for Transport by Scala Consultants. John Perry, MD of the Scala Group, defines 'the  unthinkable' as "an increase in short term costs (which may be offset longer term by brand benefits) collaboration with competitors or changing consumer behaviour to reduce demand for 'environmentally damaging products'".

In the case of hauliers many of these tough decisions will be taken by their customers, but invariably transport providers will be expected to act on their clients' expectations. Legislation is gradually devolving responsibility for carbon output down the supply chain, starting with the power stations and now passing the baton to mid-sized companies with significant power usage. Couple that with heightened public awareness (reflected in the green battleground emerging in supermarket aisles) and operators are going to come under increasing pressure.

So is the unthinkable necessary? Will you have to absorb higher costs to fund the green evolution of transport? Gary Flannagan, logistics director at Asda, thinks not. Asda has run a long-term campaign as a 'sustainability champion' for Defra (the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), looking at how it can minimise the effects of the supply chain on the environment. "We need to wed efficiency to sustainability," Flannagan told the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport conference in Birmingham last week. "Supply chains in Europe have 50% empty running built into their design and cost. There are enough empty miles to soak up the extra freight required by GDP growth for the next 10 years."

Defra calculates the external costs of food transport at £1.9bn a year Asda has committed to reducing its part of that by 20% with "both fewer miles and friendlier miles", says Flannagan. The supermarket chain has focused on the 'big ticket items' - initiatives which produce the biggest savings. "It's also about the art of the possible," says Flannagan. "Look at what can be done [rather than focusing on the negative]." Asda has focused on 'sustainable' buildings, using local and recyclable materials and incorporating rainwater collection, natural light, waste heat harvesting and new refrigeration techniques. He says rainwater use now outstrips mains water by 2:1 at the Doncaster site something which many depots might be able to copy.

Asda uses some of its empty miles to backload returns to depots. It is aiming for cost neutrality, although many efficiency moves can save money. "Only moving from road to rail on our Scottish routes has been a financial challenge," he says. The store has reorganised its primary RDCs to allow local sourcing wherever possible and minimise journey lengths. Concentrating on cube, it has switched to double-deck trailers. Fifteen curtain-sided trailers take empty pallets on their return loads. These changes are planned to save 1.9 million miles, and Asda intends to double the number of double-deckers in its fleet by 2012. It is also trialling its first double-deck reefer.

Of the 50% of trucks miles which are run empty, Asda reckons 28% are not viable for return loads. However that still leaves 3,000 empty journey legs to fill each week, which has led the company to look at collaboration. It is investigating increasing supplier backloads, and working with others to optimise the efficiency of hauling to stores. It estimates that eliminating this empty running will save nine million miles a year, while factory-gate collection will save a further six million supplier miles. "We have eliminated inter-depot trunking, got rid of the North and South distribution centres and emphasised local sourcing for stores," says Flannagan.

Off-road, Asda is the largest user of rail among UK retailers, particularly for clothing and non-sensitive grocery lines, and it wants to shift a further three million miles worth off road transport to rail by 2008. It is also moving shipped goods to Teesport, saving two million miles on deep-sea imports. Flannagan believes in-cab technology has a big part to play. Asda has done what he calls an "impressive" trial with Opticruise automated transmission the firm also plans to fit Isotrak management software. It's vehicles are replaced on a four year rolling basis, so by 2010 the whole fleet will be Euro-4 or Euro-5. "On the face of it sustainability can put unreasonable demands on the supply chain and transport," says Flannagan. "But it can be done, to everyone's benefit."

ASDA's rules:

• KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid!
• Collaborate
• Go with big, simple, achievable
• The argument has to be won on commercial grounds

Factfile

European trucks do 85bn kilometres of empty running every year. Trucks are full 40% of the time and on the road 40% of the time so overall fleet utilisation overall is just 16%.

"About 5% of our fleet is on biodiesel but we are not taking it further because the case isn't proven. We are not big fans of biodiesel at Asda."