Impacting the environment

The way you drive, whether that is personally or professionally, can have an impact on the environment.

According to the UK government, HGVs account for 15% of greenhouse gas emissions from UK transport and 4% of total UK emissions.

With the government heavily focused on reducing UK’s carbon emissions, and being legally bound by the EU Climate Change and Energy Package to reduce the UK’s total emissions by 20% by 2020, the logistics industry is under pressure more than ever before.

However, this should not be seen as something negative. Ensuring your drivers are more environmentally sensitive can bring a lot of benefits to your organisation as it can help to reduce fuel consumption, reduce outgoing costs through higher efficiency, and improve your reputation as a fuel-conscious and environmentally friendly organisation.

Here are our top tips for driving more environmentally friendly:

• Always ensure vehicles are maintained to a high standard with regular inspections and maintenance.
• Ensure that your drivers understand how they can get the best performance from their vehicle and any ancillary equipment, and how to avoid unnecessary use of fuel.
• Load vehicles to the maximum permitted by weight/volume as much as possible.
• Monitor fuel use of vehicles and your drivers, and educate drivers when it comes to filling up – always avoid filling the tank to the brim as when fuel heats up, it will expand and escape via the breather vent.
• Poor weather conditions can reduce fuel efficiency so drivers should adjust their driving to accommodate this.
• Encourage cruise control as this will allow your drivers to use the appropriate amount of fuel, and help to improve efficiency as fewer gear changes will be required.
• Engage with your employees and welcome ideas for improving the operations of your supply chain.

At Masters, we do all we can to protect the environment, and ensure our drivers are:

• Using Euro 6 engines, which help to reduce our carbon emissions.
• Reporting any maintenance issues and carrying out regular tyre inspections including tyre pressures to ensure correct tyre wear, and swapping tyres between axles where necessary.
• Using cruise control as this can provide 7% average fuel savings compared to driving without it.
• Carefully planning routes, and ensuring that it is most cost effective for our customers and has minimal impact on the environment.
• Maintaining constant speeds, using the highest gear and lowest revs possible, and reducing the need for unnecessary gear changes.
• Driving smoothly, avoid overuse of the clutch, are braking smoothly and progressively, reading the road ahead, and avoiding starts and stops where possible.

Because of these actions and our commitment to protecting the environment, minimising our environmental impact of our operations, and complying with environmental legislations, we are proud to have been awarded the ISO 14001 certification.

If you would like information about how we help businesses with their warehousing and distribution requirements, and how we can help your business keep your environmental impact to a minimum, get in touch with Mervyn Jeffery, Business & Commercial Development Manager, by emailing [email protected] or by calling 01353 648222.