The Centre for Sustainable Road Freight has been launched, hoping to minimise environmental impact of road freight transport, as well as make it economically and socially sustainable.
The centre, a £6 million UK initiative, will bring together road freight vehicle engineering knowledge from Cambridge University Engineering Department and logistics expertise from Heriot-Watt University’s Logistics Research Centre.
The first five years of research held there have been co-funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, which has provided £4.4 million, and a new industry consortium, which has contributed £1.4 million.
The consortium is formed of key freight operators such as John Lewis, Warbutons and Wincanton, as well as the Freight Transport Association and industry partners such as Volvo Group and Optrak. As well as the funding, it will work on creating the research agenda and spearheading the adoption of the results by the road freight industry.
“Reducing fuel consumption and meeting sustainability targets are key priorities of the road freight industry, said Dave Rowlands, technical director at Wincanton and chairman of the new centre.
“Bringing together some of the world’s best researchers in vehicle engineering and logistics, with a diverse group of industry partners to steer the work means the new centre should be able to make a big difference in the environmental impact of the road freight sector.”
