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Royal Mail in green bid
Page 13
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By Ian Tonkii ROYAL MAIL is looking to its commercial vehicle fleet to help it achieve the goal of halving its total CO2 output by 2015.
Nearly 40% of all Royal Mail's CO, emissions, approximately a million tonnes per year, come from its road transport operations — which is why it is looking at alternative propulsion technologies.
Mark Cavill, carbon management programme manager for the Royal Mail Group, says: "We would switch to 'green' fleets tomorrow if there was an urban delivery van available. We believe OEMs are missing a trick because commercial vehicles represent the ideal platform to showcase future propulsion technology.
"They usually run predefined routes, and rarely do more than 100 miles in a day, so it is the perfect way to set up an infrastructure to support that industry, which would then pave the way for the mass consumer market."
Royal Mail is currently trialling two Ford Transits from Roush Technologies, in collaboration with Cenex. which arc capable of running on both hydrogen and petrol. On hydrogen alone, the Transit has an estimated range of 95 miles, which is well above Royal Mail's required daily van average of 47 miles.
"We are looking to consolidate our mail centres and use renewable energy sources to power them. One of the solutions is stationary fuel cells, which generate the required power, but more interestingly hydrogen too. The gas from the stationary fuel cells can then be used to power the parcel delivery vans," says Cavil'.