Royal Mail is transitioning some of its heavy good vehicles to be fuelled by renewable diesel alternative hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), a move which will save 2.1 million litres of diesel this year.
The transition to using HVO is part of Royal Mail’s plan to reduce the business’ carbon emissions to net zero by 2040.
Royal Mail fleet director Rob Fowler said the postal services has made “great progress” in its operation by introducing 5,000 electric vehicles in its fleet but now needs to focus on its HGVs.
Royal Mail’s Sheffield mail centre, Midlands super hub and Manchester vehicle operating centre are the first sites planned 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 litres of diesel this year.
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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 tonnes of CO2e.
HVO is a drop-in, fossil-free biofuel that can cut up to 90% of greenhouse gas emissions, according to figures from Certas Energy and does not require any engine or fuelling infrastructure modifications.
For the first year of deployment, Certas Energy will be supporting Royal Mail with its roll-out of HVO.
“We consider HVO to be a transitional fuel that helps us to take steps towards decarbonising our HGV fleet whilst low-emissions technologies continue to advance in this area,” added Fowler.
“We will continue to assess and test other emerging low emission technologies that we could potentially deploy in our larger fleet including electric and hydrogen HGVs. Many of these technologies are still in development and are currently not commercially viable to deploy at scale.”
