The number of ‘green’ consumers in the world is growing rapidly and they are becoming very conscious of the carbon footprint of the products they buy.
When you combine this trend with the very obvious benefits to profitability, this means that the time is at hand when producers must change their operations and cut carbon emissions – if only to stay ahead of competitors.
Many food manufacturers and processors already have systems in place to ensure that excessive (and expensive) quantities of power are not used, temperatures of refrigeration equipment are kept within the correct levels for economic operation, loading bay doors kept shut when not in use and their staff made aware of the cost of wasting energy. However, this does not always apply to the distribution system, whether carried out by the manufacturer, their customer, or a third party logistics provider.
There is an alternative to the obvious use of refrigerated vehicles for temperature sensitive goods – portable, insulated and/or refrigerated containers. Thus the actual vehicles can have normal dry-freight bodywork without the need for costly refrigeration systems (both to buy and operate with many having an additional diesel engine). There is a saving in energy and reduced running costs as a result of lower unladen weight without refrigeration, and less energy is consumed in the manufacture of a non-insulated body. It is also possible to reduce the actual vehicle fleet as both ambient and temperature-controlled goods can be carried in the same vehicle.
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