Road Transport Forum
Iwant to start by congratulating Lindsay Wood and New Zealand Trucking editor Dave McCoid on the launch of ‘Trucking Toward a Better Future’, an initiative aimed at getting truck drivers and others in the road-freight industry thinking about what they can do to reduce CO2 emissions.
The initiative came about after Lindsay saw an article on Johnny Baxter from Temuka Transport, who in 2017 took out the Volvo Trucks Fuelwatch Challenge, a testament to driving skill that has a direct correlation with safety, fuel consumption, profitability, and carbon emissions.
Lindsay runs consultancy company Rezilienz, which specialises in practical ways organisations and their staff can address climate change. Impressed with Baxter’s performance, he contacted Climate Change Minister James Shaw. He didn’t receive a reply, so he got in touch with McCoid to see if something could be done to harness the brainpower of New Zealand’s truckers. He realised that what Baxter had achieved didn’t fit with mainstream driving practice, and felt if one person driving a truck in a particular way could make such a big difference to the industry’s environmental future, this could be applied to other areas.
The outcome was ‘Trucking Toward a Better Future’, with a prize pool of $2000 for the best ideas. The competition runs until the end of April and I hope it encourages everyone to think outside the box and come up with ways of improving efficiency and lowering emissions across the industry.
Judging the ideas will be business and environmental commentator Rod Oram, and Carr & Haslam director Chris Carr. Recognising that truck drivers are aware of the entire supply chain and have their eyes and ears open at all times, they will be looking for workable ideas that can be adopted at a practical level.
This initiative could not have come at a better time, following on the heels of the Climate Change Commission releasing its draft report. New Zealand’s government has committed to reaching net zero emissions of long-lived gases by 2050, and to reducing biogenic methane emissions by between 24% and 47% by 2050.
The commission acknowledges the vast majority of the freight task will remain on the road, but says switching some freight movements from road to rail and coastal shipping could reduce emissions. However, they concede that only a fraction of the freight task (about 4% of freight tonne-kilometres) can switch by 2030.
We regularly hear the call for more freight to be put on rail or sent by sea, but the reality is nothing equals the road transport industry for efficiency and the ability to reach all the destinations that our modern freight system demands. We’re in agreement with the commission that some freight is suitable for rail or shipping, but you can’t collect milk from farms or deliver goods door-to-door using anything other than a truck.
Under the commission’s approach to meeting the 2050 targets, New Zealand would need to almost completely decarbonise land transport. This means changing how most vehicles are powered. The report does recognise that medium and heavy trucks will be slower to electrify than the light vehicle fleet because current battery technology does not provide the range needed for effective long-haul road transport.
The choice of alternative fuel (hydrogen/methanol/ electricity/biodiesel/synthetics) will be dependent on the availability and cost of those fuels in New Zealand as well as the vehicle technology to run them. The practicality of each alternative fuel depends on adequate electricity (or gas) supply and significant infrastructure to facilitate its manufacture and distribution. Any policies for decarbonising the road-freight industry must take into account these factors, as well as the investment impact of purchasing new equipment and the availability of technicians and resources to service the new equipment.
We can’t predict the future and say with certainty which of the alternative methods of powering heavy trucks will be right for New Zealand. Who knows, maybe an entrant in the ‘Trucking Toward a Better Future’ competition will come up with something none of us has thought of yet. I can’t wait to see what comes out it. □