Guest post by Chris Jenkinson
Where global warming is still a viable buzzword phrase and people are still considering how to make the planet more environmentally friendly, couriers, who spend a lot of time driving from one location to another, are having to consider how they can make their transport greener to reduce their impact on the environment.
There are a number of positive steps that couriers can take to make their business more attractive to people who insist on green initiatives. The majority of these initiatives are all readily available and used by their customers, so there’s no real excuse why couriers can’t go green.
Couriers have been using bicycles for years
Compared to petrol or diesel driven vehicles, bicycles are almost as green as you can get for any delivery mode of transport. For short deliveries across towns and cities, cycle couriers can often reach a destination quicker than motorbikes, cars or vans due to current levels of road congestion. With the addition of cycle lanes in most of the U.K.’s towns and cities, they are a quicker and viable alternative.
In addition to cutting down on a courier’s emissions into the atmosphere, bicycle use will certainly keep the riders fit and therefore, healthier. The downside to using bicycles is that couriers can only carry relatively small packages and because cars and cycles rarely mix safely; there is a higher prospect for accidents to occur.
Electric and solar paneled transportation has partially arrived, but not to a satisfactory degree yet. Electric cars have very short travelling distances before they need recharging, but the use of a hybrid vehicle, where the petrol engine will take over for part of the journey, will at least help the courier company to act responsibly.
Electric milk floats were used in the 1950s and 1960s, so some people would expect electric vehicles to be effective to transport goods. Unfortunately, couriers keep their prices down by delivering as quickly as they can so they can deliver as many packages as possible during the course of the day, and electric vehicles effectively slow down the process.
For every electric vehicle that a courier uses, at least it is one step in the right direction to help the company at least show they are moving towards becoming green.
Couriers use small electronic units to track packages from collection to delivery. Where these battery-powered units can be replaced by solar powered modules, that’s another step to a greener operation.
Like all businesses, couriers are trying to do as much as possible to make their businesses environmentally friendly, balanced with the need to keep high service standards for their customers. Whether customers are prepared to expect potentially slower deliveries in return for a greener business remains to be seen.
- License: Creative Commons image source
Chris Jenkinson writes for international couriers Courierpoint.
Editor’s note: As I have written earlier, the British company that made the milk trucks Chris mentions have licensed an American affiliate to make electric delivery vehicles. It remains to be seen whether the effort has a viable business plan. We can only hope that someone will succeed!