As part of our move towards a greener future and more eco-friendly service for customers, EVO’s transport business, Truline, has invested in a van fleet upgrade.
The impact of both Brexit and COVID created disruption across the transport industry. We are confident that now is the right time to build the Truline capacity for the rest of 2021 and beyond.
After a lengthy process we have committed to replacing our van fleet to ensure we have the reliability within our van network. A worldwide shortage of major components which is impacting manufacturers lead-times, will result in a more gradual introduction of new vehicles.
We have already replaced some of our higher mileage vehicles with short term hire and are now seeing some of our new core vehicles come into circulation, with a refresh of our logo.
The Truline fleet comprises over 350 liveried vehicles and provides a national next day service, covering large parts of the mainland UK and Northern Ireland. The only exceptions are the outreach areas such as the Highlands, Islands, and remote rural areas, for which we use & manage several 3rd party carriers.
We operate from 17 distribution hubs, four of which are fully stocked distribution Centres, with 1 standalone DC in Ireland.
After positive feedback from a recent trial, we are going to bring 50 Vauxhall Movano’s into the fleet in early September. These have an almost identical carrying capacity to the current Citroen Relays, with a slightly more powerful engine but an improved mpg of 15%.
In addition, we have also committed to four 100% electric vehicles (the Maxus eDeliver9) that we will initially base out of Gilmorton Road, Lutterworth. From here we will closely monitor these vehicles on how they perform with the varying profiles of our customer orders. Clearly range and carrying capacity are key but with a reported 980 kg payload and a range of 150 miles we are hopeful that these will be an exciting and valuable addition to our fleet as we look to explore further roll-out opportunities across our network.
This exciting step towards lower emissions follows the investments made into new lower emission trunking fleet in 2019/2020.
These more fuel-efficient vehicles will help to improve EVO’s carbon footprint by cutting our emissions. They will also ensure greater efficiencies thanks to the need for less fuel to achieve the same number of deliveries.
With the UK aiming to achieve a significant cut in greenhouse gas emissions over the coming years, most organisations are looking at how and where they can make positive changes, and this move takes EVO another step in the right direction. It reflects our determination to deliver environmentally beneficial changes as and when we are able to. In recent years EVO also invested in a state of the art transport management system, which allows a streamlined delivery service and minimises CO2 emissions, via the use of fuel efficient routes.
We continue to trial different vehicle makes/marques to ensure that we benefit from the latest technologies. After positive feedback from a recent trial, we are now going to bring into our fleet 50 Vauxhall Movano’s in early September. These have an almost identical carrying capacity to the current Citroen Relays, with a slightly more powerful engine but an improved mpg of 15%. Important as we look to minimise emissions profile. The support network is strong, so to ensure we have a new reliable fleet we will bring these into circulation shortly.
In addition, we have also committed to four 100% electric vehicles (the Maxus eDeliver9) that we will initially base out of Gilmorton Road, Lutterworth. From here we will closely monitor these vehicles on how they perform with the varying profiles of our customer orders. Clearly range and carrying capacity are key but with a reported 980 kg payload and a range of 150 miles we are hopeful that these will be an exciting and valuable addition to our fleet as we look to explore further roll-out opportunities across our network.