PepsiCo UK - Case study: Fewer transport miles

PepsiCo is saving about 1 million food transport miles per year from Britain's roads following a review in 2007 of how it transports its raw materials and finished goods.

The review led to a three-pronged strategy for achieving fewer and friendlier food miles. Working with its key retailers, PepsiCo is now allowing drivers to drop off finished goods to supermarkets in a specially designed trailer en route to collecting raw materials from potato farms. This rationalisation of transport resources has led to the company saving just under 300,000 food transport miles per year.

In addition, through greater collaboration with key retailers to share transport on mutually viable routes, PepsiCo has been able to avoid 700,000 food transport miles per year.

PepsiCo's approach is also being reinforced in general by best practice as set out in FDF's 10 Point Checklist for Greener Food Transport (pdf, 769kb). The company therefore pays close attention to issues such a journey planning – and uses high tech software for this – and vehicle tyres to ensure that journeys are undertaken as environmentally efficiently as possible.

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