Sustainability- Making your transport work better right now for your customers and the planet

“Done right, sustainability doesn’t cost. It pays.”

Jack Levis, former Senior Director of Innovation at UPS.

Your fleet is at the heart of your recycling and waste management business, collecting and moving materials, and being seen by existing and potential customers.

But it is also a significant cost, including the capital invested into buying or leasing the vehicle, ever-increasing fuel charges, and of course the staff that operate the truck or van.

Potentially, you are also under pressure from customers to keep costs under control, while also trying to mitigate your emissions from these vehicles.

While some companies are moving towards using electric vehicles, or hydrogen fuel cells, these are still emerging technologies for heavy-duty transportation of recyclate and waste materials.

How can you make your transport work for your customers and the planet?

Recently, oil giant Shell published a White Paper looking at the key transformational trends of the freight transport industry.

These were:

1. Digital solutions to improve operational efficiency
2. Digital security solutions to mitigate fraud and other forms of theft
3. Successful decarbonization strategies require a pragmatic, stepwise approach.

It is clear, these apply just as much to recycling and waste logistics.

Shell found that fuel costs of 5-20% could be saved through driver training based on the telematics from fleet solutions. While optimizing truck usage and maximizing loads can raise efficiency by 20%. This also helped to mitigate some of the effects of global lorry driver shortages.

With fraud and theft mitigation for high-value materials, Shell noted that vehicle tracking can ensure that planners know where the vehicle is and where it should be.

To decarbonize, it found that fuels such as natural gas (LNG), Bio-LNG, compressed natural gas (CNG), synthetic fuels, and gas-to-liquids could all replace high emissions from diesel now. Eventually, fleets will move towards electric or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, but those technologies do not appear ready for entire fleets.

Why is using sustainable transport good for your business and your profit margin?

Put simply:

• Efficient transport means lower fuel costs and reduced emissions of CO2, NOx, and particulate emissions
• It means less wear and tear of vehicles, use of new parts, and higher maintenance costs if more efficient routes are being used
• You provide a service to your customers when they need it
• According to an IBM study, 70% of consumers in the US and Canada think it is important if a brand is sustainable or eco-friendly – showing you are thinking sustainably attracts customers - taking steps to reduce fuel consumption can be one of your company’s sustainability goals
• Staffing of vehicles is maximized making the most of your human resources
• You can plan the materials you need to collect, ensuring you can make efficient deliveries to the next stage of the recycling process.

What one simple task can you do now to make your transport more sustainable?

Our new AMCS Platform provides an integrated solution for transport that maximizes your efficiency and by its nature, makes your transport more sustainable.

The AMCS Transport Management System is designed to automate the planning, optimization, and execution of transport operations.

It allows fleet operators to plan, execute, monitor, optimize and analyze all aspects of their transport operations.

Our driver mobile applications ensure changes can be made in real-time to ensure adaptation to the most efficient route when circumstances require it.

Driver and fleet productivity is optimized, it delivers the highest customer service standards, and fuel costs and emissions are reduced by providing optimal routes.

Sustainability isn’t just achieved by big gestures), but by making small changes to the way you operate, enabling your business to become more efficient, reduce harmful emissions, and making it pay – as Jack Levis realized.