Smart Freight Center — 2023-01-11
Automotive Industry
Smart Freight Centre announces the launch of the Road Freight Electrification Guidance, which will work towards helping fleet owners and freight buyers to better understand where and when freight electrification should be applied, based on solid research, a tested decision-making approach, and through real-life examples from around the world.
About the Road Freight Electrification Guidance
The electrification of the road freight sector is challenging and requires a socio-technical revolution led by shippers, logistics service providers and carriers to truly succeed. Electric freight vehicles, from an operational and business perspective, make sense for most applications – provided that a comprehensive planning approach is used. The Road Freight Electrification Guidance works towards this goal by helping fleet owners and freight buyers to better understand where and when electrification should be applied, based on solid research, a tested decision-making approach, and through real-life examples from around the world.
"The transport and logistics industries are socially, and in some cases, legally obligated to reduce their carbon footprints significantly. Deep emission reduction will have to come primarily from the elimination of energy sourced from fossil fuels. Electric vehicles are a priority solution, in this regard, as they provide a realistic and impactful way to significantly reduce freight emissions. However, any realistic and impactful solution will not be adopted unless it is perceived to be effective and easy to use. That is why learning and communication are key, and with the Guidance, we plan exactly to do that.", Dr. Ing. Tharsis Teoh, SFC Technical Manager and Road Freight Electrification Guidance Project Leader.
The Guidance is a project of the Global Logistics Emission Council (GLEC), an initiative led by Smart Freight Centre.
How does the Road Freight Electrification Guidance work?
The Guidance will provide recommendations to logistics actors on several priority actions, which are established based on the current and short-term state of the electric vehicle (EV) market. Users will be guided in decision-making regarding the incorporation of electric vehicles within their sustainable logistics roadmaps, taking into consideration the availability and suitability of existing electric vehicles as well as offerings by third-party service providers. The fleet electrification aspect of the Guidance furthermore includes education on the planning and provision support of adequate charging infrastructure for a user's own fleet or for third-party fleets. As such, one of the key goals of the Guidance is to help users incentivize third-party freight service providers to make a full transition to electric vehicles.
As a research project, the Guidance is additionally focused on supporting users with the accurate calculation and reporting of two key aspects of fleet electrification: the calculation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of freight activity based on available data; and the measurement of the impact of the lifecycle (cradle-to-grave) of freight vehicles and operations on climate change.
To get involved, and for more information on this project, visit the Road Freight Electrification Guidance page.