Cutting Carbon Emissions Through Haulage Loads

This may seem an unlikely article for me to write at first. Working in the road transport industry, many people assume it is automatically impossible to have a green conscience. This isn't surprising, given that my job depending on hundreds of haulage vehicles dragging loads up and down the country, producing all those environment damaging carbon emissions along the way. Actually, the truth is that my job allows me to be both a green advocate and a road haulage representative while still helping me claim a salary. No, I haven't invented a device that changes exhaust emissions into pure oxygen - it's simply thanks to the nature of freight exchanges.

It works like this: under normal circumstances, drivers or companies manage their own loads with their customers, make their delivery and then return home to the depot for the next load. Environmentally and on a human level, this isn't efficient. The driver is, in effect, only being paid for the outbound journey, and in these times when the price of fuel seems to be rising on an almost daily basis, this is financially crippling. Now consider a freight exchange - a network of suppliers and drivers/companies who distribute their loads between them meaning that the return journey can contain another job. This means the trip is paid for (both ways) and therefore the haulage company is not operating at a loss (even for a minute) and profits can rise.

All well and good, but this still isn't looking particularly environmentally friendly is it? Wait, I'm getting to that.

Now, if this return load is being distributed back to someone who is already out on the road, it won't be given to a driver for whom that would be the sole purpose of the trip. This means that there are less wasted journeys (every mile involved has a delivery attached) and therefore less unnecessary carbon emissions all over the place. Better still, if this collaboration for efficiency continues across the industry, then less trucks will be required to shift all the work, and we may even see the decommissioning of these carbon-emitting behemoths. The environment will surely jump for joy.

Unlike most environmentally friendly solutions which require an element of self sacrifice, the freight exchange actually creates benefits across the board: the haulage companies/owner operators make more money, the roads get less congested and the environment becomes less polluted. Everybody wins - and for that reason, we have seen impressive pick up for our online freight exchange for the 7.5tonne and above market: Haulage Exchange.

I can't say whether our customer base is growing for monitory or environmental reasons (or both), but whichever it is, the gradual migration to us and other freight exchanges is great news for the environment. And if our drivers save themselves significant money as well, then all the better.

Luke Humble is the Website manager for The Transport Exchange Group. Their website for the 7.5 tonne and over market, Haulage Exchange, is one of the UK's leading independent and fastest growing freight exchanges.The exchanges are neutral, actively managed and with strict quality control to ensure smooth running.