After much work has been done in the UK’s HGV industry to reduce its carbon footprint, a new Road Haulage Association (RHA) report has revealed that these efforts have not been in vain. In this report, there is welcome news that NOx emissions from HGVs have dropped by an impressive 72% in the UK since 2013.
The RHAs NOx Emission Assessment for 2022 stated that this fall has been driven largely by hauliers themselves, having invested £2.2bn in Euro-6 trucks during the same period. There also appears to be good news about the future, as RHA modelling show that NOx levels will have dropped by a further 10% by 2025, without restrictive measures being introduced.
Clean Air Zone (CAZ) Policies Targe HGVs Unfairly
Despite this major improvement, the RHA added that CAZ policies still target HGV operators disproportionately. This is evidenced by the fact that in some cases, UK HGV drivers are hit with charges of £100 per day while at the same time only being responsible for a minimal 8% of all NOx roadside emissions.
As such, the RHA has encouraged the government to adjust the current CAZ framework to allow lorries less than 12 years old to be exempt from charge. MD of the RHA, Richard Smith had this to say on the matter:
“There are still misconceptions about HGVs and our industry’s commitment to adopting cleaner air technologies. We’ve all got a long way to go, but these figures show that we’re making huge strides in reducing harmful emissions from our fleets.
We urge policymakers to recognise this progress and target emissions reduction in fairer and more effective ways.”
HGVC – Doing Our Part In Reducing Emissions
At HGVC, we do our part in creating a cleaner, more environmentally-sound haulage industry in the UK. We’re actually the 1st provider to introduce carbon-neutral driver training via our 400+ driver training centres across the UK. It’s something that we’re very proud of and it’s made possible through our partnership with THG More:Trees.
For every driver training course that is ordered, a new tree is planted as part of our association, offsetting any carbon that’s created from the vehicles during instruction. Averagely speaking, each training course creates 75-90kg of CO2, with 0.3 tonnes being absorbed by each and every tree that is planted through the scheme. We’re confident that we’re actually carbon-negative!
In addition to eliminating our net carbon emissions, the scheme also helps to tackle deforestation in areas of the work like Haiti, Kenya and Madagascar. As well as protecting future generations from climate change, new healthy forests help to purify water and channel it to farmers and communities who depend on it to survive.
Committed to Protecting the Natural Environment
We take our commitment to protect the natural environment while supporting the UK haulage industry very seriously and we’re proud to be a trailblazer in this regard. As such, we’ll continue to look for new, cleaner ways to reduce our carbon footprint, in addition to seeking out innovative renewable energy and fuel efficiency solutions.
If you’d like to learn more about us or our industry-leading HGV licence acquisition programs that can be scaled to meet any size of need, please take a moment to look around our website, where you’ll find everything you need to know. Alternatively, should you wish to discuss your specific requirements, either call us on 0330 818 8888 or click on ‘contact us’ today.
