Transport: 'fewer and friendlier' miles
"Over the next year we will continue to promote our Checklist and Clause to
members to spread transport best practice".
There are currently 45 companies, with combined
turnover of more than £17bn, signed up to FDF's
Checklist and Clause for Greener Food Transport, which
we launched in July 2008.
The Checklist comprises a list of ten best practice points
such as maximising vehicle loading, the ratio of trailers
to tractors, empty running, driver training and vehicle
maintenance.
The Clause allows members that contract out their
haulage to embed the principles of the Checklist into
their contracts with third-party hauliers, in turn requiring
them to develop a 'fewer and friendlier food transport
miles' manifesto and to provide qualitative annual reports
to demonstrate progress.
To date all signatories with their own fleets have
implemented the Checklist into their transport operations
as appropriate and provided feedback to illustrate
progress.
The vast majority of signatories, however, use thirdparty
hauliers to transport their goods, sometimes in
combination with their own fleet. Most of these operate
under contractual arrangements meaning that there is
often a longer lead-in time for implementation of the
Clause due to the necessity to wait until contracts fall for
renewal.
To date, FDF's Environmental Clause has been
embedded in the haulage contracts of one-third of these
signatories. Futhermore, two hauliers have published
'fewer and friendlier food miles' manifestos.
Over the next year we will continue to promote our
Checklist and Clause to members to spread transport
best practice across the UK food and drink sector. We
expect more qualitative information to be available as
hauliers supply our members with annual reports of their
progress. We will also consider developing a toolkit of
materials to help further the implementation process –
including the provision of possible proxy indicators for
CO2 emissions.
We will continue to press Defra to measure and publish
quantitative information on the external impacts of food
transport using the four key performance indicators laid
down in the Food Industry Sustainability Strategy.
Companies that have signed up to the Checklist and Clause
top
More Information
Last reviewed: 24 Nov 2008