Leading logistics companies and global brands, including DB Schenker, Deutsche Post DHL, Kingfisher, Nestlé and IKEA, have called on the EU to set fuel economy standards within the next two years.
Collectively, the companies submitted a letter to European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, calling on him to propose post-2020 standards that reduce the CO2 emissions and fuel consumption of new trucks and trailers.
The letter says that ‘despite progress on reducing pollutant emissions, thanks to the Euro Standards, new truck fuel consumption has remained stable for almost two decades.’
‘We do not believe that introducing a truck CO test procedure and monitoring truck CO emissions would be sufficient to kick start the market for ultra fuel efficient trucks in Europe.”
The letter calls for Europe to follow the example of Japan, China and the US – which have all introduced fuel economy regulation for trucks.
Bart Vandewaetere, Nestlé’s assistant-vice president relations with European institutions, said: “Nestlé is working, together with our supply chain partners, to cut fuel consumption and GHG emissions from transport by another 10 per cent by 2020 (versus 2014), on top of already made reductions.
“Increasing the fuel efficiency of trucks will give the transport industry the required boost to further reduce overall CO2-emissions after 2020, when most of the other options have been fully exploited.”
“Political framework decisions should provide balanced incentives for best-in-class performers to drive innovation,” said Ewald Kaiser, CEO of DB Schenker region Europe and member of the board Land Transport.
