Member blog: Lincolnshire’s Logistics Industry: A Bright, Green Future?

By Andy Price, Managing Director, Coversure Grantham

2022 has already proved a year of challenge and change for the logistics industry. 

Between soaring fuel prices and fast-rising demand, it’s looking like this will be a watershed year for the industry. To get some insight into what’s happening, Coversure Insurance Grantham’s Managing Director Andy Price looks at what lies ahead for Lincolnshire’s’ vital logistics industry and sees plenty of room for optimism.

At Coversure Grantham we’ve been providing competitive, high-quality truck, courier, and commercial vehicle insurance since 2000. As such we’ve a keen interest in the logistics and delivery sectors and over the past couple of years we’ve paid close attention to how the industry is going green.

With the UK Government setting targets for all new vans and HGVs to be zero-emission by 2030 and 2040 respectively, and with increasing numbers of consumers looking for more sustainable deliveries there are lots of reasons for Lincolnshire’s many logistics businesses to go green.

Transport is the largest contributor to UK greenhouse gas emissions, at 27% in 2019. While the majority of these come from passenger cars, 18% are from trucks and HGVs, and 17% are from vans. But as the Government points out in its 2021 Transport Decarbonisation Plan the change needed to realise a net-zero transport sector makes sense even without the global climate change imperative.

With home delivery said to be 24 times more eco-friendly than individuals getting in their own cars to go shopping, the rise of online shopping sounds like a good thing for the environment as well as the logistics businesses in Lincolnshire.

The rise in online shopping is a key contributor to the growth in the transport and logistics industry according to a recent report from the Office For National Statistics (ONS). The number of logistics premises and warehouses are said to have doubled in the last decade as the UK’s eCommerce market hit £182.9 billion in 2021. But is switching vehicles all that’s needed to clean up our environment?

More to Eco-Friendly Logistics than Vehicles

There’s more the logistics industry can do to make deliveries more sustainable. Many firms are making commitments to using recyclable packaging and removing their use of single-use plastics. An increase in the use of parcel lockers results in fewer miles as does a higher rate of successful first-attempt deliveries.

Companies are also looking at ways to offset their carbon emissions in a bid to reach net-zero targets and we’ve seen solar panels appearing on warehouse roofs. In more urban areas Cargo bikes are being introduced and a number of pilots of delivery drones and autonomous delivery robots are already underway.

With transport and storage now the largest industry in parts of the East of England, our region has a lot to gain from embracing the change to cleaner and more energy-efficient operations. Haulage and logistics are significant industries for Lincolnshire, with the Greater Lincolnshire Enterprise Partnership’s (GLEP) figures showing that between them they employ 18,000 workers and contribute £800m.

Existing green technologies are improving all the time and new ones are now being sought and researched. This makes for an exciting time for the logistics sector, and at Coversure Grantham we’re looking forward to seeing what the green future holds for our truck and courier customers.

Andy Price

Managing Director

Coversure Grantham