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Falkirk Van Hire Goes Green




One week closes, another one begins…

Sunday 12th March 2017 – just another date on the calendar, like any other and not very exciting marks the end of another busy week here at the Falkirk Van Hire & Removals.

After 4 removals within Falkirk, 1 to Stirling and 1 to Hull as well as 30 odd single/bulky item deliveries scattered through the week I began wondering how many miles we racked up in the meantime.

Forever the environmentalist, conscious of the fact that transport companies, by their very nature, emit carbon emissions like no other and with a couple of quiet hours to kill I decided to fire up Google Maps and started counting.

I took particular care in being honest with myself whilst on the count but even though I had all pick up and drop off points for the week in front of me there really was no telling which routes were preferred by the driver while the vans were getting from A to B so in the end, I calculated the most direct routes and added 30% to the total just to be sure I arrive at a realistic result.

Not very scientific but even so, it turns out that even after another busy week. our miles stayed under the 600 mark which is good. This is largely due to most of our road time being local and we do try to organise the days schedule in a way that prevents a driver having to double back on himself for any reason between jobs. The vehicles are also limited to 52MPH.

But things we can do to lower our carbon footprint? Yep sure… Firstly we’ll be looking into some kind of biofuel. I’ve been hearing about them lately and as far as I’m aware they release less carbon emissions than conventional diesel fuels. Admittedly I don’t know much about them other than what I’ve heard at time of writing but if it turns out that biofuels are definitely cleaner then it’s something we’ll be looking at this week and hopefully converting to over the coming months.

Secondly, after a lengthy chat with the owner of another removals firm in Manchester who recommended a piece of software that was originally developed for taxi firms, we can apparently cut our weekly mileage by up to 25% too. I’m not sure what that is in carbon savings at 180g/km converted to miles then deducted from the weeks mileage but it’s definitely something. And anything is better than nothing I’d imagine. I like to think that after 8 years in the business we have a handle on the overall principle of logistics but if a particular computer program can do more efficiently than what our current system does then I’m definitely open to the idea.

We’ve already went paperless too so the chances of getting a paper receipt from us is nil. Everything other than the drivers job sheet is electronic and our vehicles are well maintained to ensure optimal running and fuel efficiency so with the options we have available to us as a vehicle based company, I would like to think that by the end of 2017 the only way we could be any greener is if they invent hydrogen fuel cells on a commercial basis.

Which they will… Eventually… I’m looking forward to that day 😉

Another quality blog post by Falkirk Van Hire & Removals




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