A Leeds metal firm has started shifting steel by canal rather than truck in an effort to save fuel costs and become greener.
ASD Metal Services, which supplies steel to a range of companies, is using the canal to bring steel from Scunthorpe and the Humber ports to its Leeds distribution centre. The firm's Leeds base is alongside the Aire and Calder navigation canal.
The onward movement of the steel to customers
is still carried out by road and a spokesman for the firm says that no drivers' jobs have been lost as a result of the change.
One issue the company had to overcome in setting up the canal route was a shortage of suitable barges, but the vessel it is now using carries 600 tonnes, the equivalent of 24 truck-loads.
"It is both fuel efficient and environmentally friendly," says the spokesman.
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