Britain's hauliers are concerned about not being seen as green enough, and 45% of operators report that their customers are interested in how green they are. Those are two of the key findings of a major survey carried out by Motor Transport this week. It shows that the caricature of truck operators being uninterested in the environment as wrong.
In all 91% of respondents said that the industry needs to be more environmentally friendly and 95% say that the industry is seen as a big polluter by the public. A stunning 95% say that the industry should do more to promote how much cleaner vehicles are now. And 48% are considering moving to biodiesel.
The results show how seriously much of the industry is taking of environmental issues. This is not surprising because of the risk of new green taxes against heavy polluters, and because of pressure from customers. Going green has suddenly, and rightly, become one of the most important issues affecting the industry, another being who pays for the extra cost of being green. The customers want environmentally friendly hauliers, but are they prepared to pay?