In the UK, Royal Mail is tackling the emissions from its larger fleet by transitioning some of its heavy good vehicles (HGVs) to be fuelled by renewable diesel alternative Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO).
Royal Mail’s Sheffield mail centre, Midlands Super Hub and Manchester vehicle operating centre are the first sites to transition to HVO with four more locations to follow in the coming months. The locations have been chosen based on where HGVs move significant volumes for major customers. Using HVO at these sites will save a combined consumption of 2.1 million liters of diesel this year.
The transition to HVO is part of Royal Mail’s Steps to Zero plan – a drive to reduce the business’ carbon emissions to net zero by 2040. Through its ambitious plan, Royal Mail has set a long-term target to reduce its average emissions per parcel to 50gCO2e. At 218gCO2e, Royal Mail is already the UK’s greenest option for letters and parcels.
Through deploying HVO, Royal Mail is also meeting growing demand from its customers to reduce emissions. Royal Mail plans to continue to increase its HVO deployment across its local and national distribution fleet network over the coming years, aiming to reduce its direct emissions by up to 200,000 metric tons of CO2e.
