‘Scandal’ of one in three lorries on UK roads are empty

It is scandalous that one in three lorries on Britain’s roads is driving with nothing on board, says Midlands green energy expert Ron Fox.

He was commenting on figures from the Department of Transport (DfT) that show around 150,000 heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) a day travel for more than three billion miles every year – when their lorry is empty.

“That is the equivalent of driving to the moon and back 6,500 times or more than 5,000 years of driving,” said Ron of Noreus Ltd on the University of Keele Science Innovation Park.

And he said it is a global problem with one in five lorries on the roads in the European Union empty and in the USA it’s one in six.

Experts says people can tell whether a lorry is empty because often the fourth set of wheels can be lifted up off the ground when it is running empty or partly loaded.

Ron added that at a time of high fuel prices these companies were incurring costs without generating any income, on top of which road freight accounts for 53 per cent of CO2 emissions within global trade.

And the problem is only going to get worse with international volumes of freight transport predicted to more than double by 2050.

The difficulty, Ron said, is that the industry is still reliant on manual ways of working and needs to use technology to help co-ordinate their journeys and literally share the load.

Also, another problem is that an oil tanker can’t come back carrying milk or food for example while other refrigerated vehicles can’t return with produce needing storage at different temperatures. Plus, there are geographical problems with more freight going into Scotland than coming out of the country.

One company that is helping to solve the problem is Zeus which was founded in 2020 by Clemente Theotokis and his friend Jai Kanwar which aims to connect road hauliers with local businesses in need of transportation to help reduce unnecessary journeys, cut costs and reduce emissions.

Zeus’s digital marketplace allows clients to see all available lorries – and everything is managed through a web app and driver mobile app, eliminating paperwork, reducing the number of empty lorries plus helping to cut harmful atmospheric gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2).

They now have 2,000 clients and reckon they can help hauliers increase their revenues by up to 37 per cent, cut their carbon emissions by up to 84 per cent, reduce their empty lorry journeys by up to 22 per cent and help them save more than 10 per cent in running costs.

Mr Theotokis said one of the main reasons people see trucks running empty was the difficulty of getting work. Now he said Zeus is helping them find both spot and contract work.

For more information about green energy and cutting your carbon footprint and transport costs call Ron on 01782 756995.

Caption: On the road to cutting lorry costs and carbon emissions. Picture supplied by Zeus