Australia is leading the world in coal power emissions with average carbon dioxide rates of 5.34 tonnes each year from 2015 to 2020. It’s no wonder that Australia emits nearly 2% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, considering we manage a quarter of the global coal trade and we are one of the world’s biggest gas exporters. It’s time for Australia to be at the top for developing solutions to climate change rather than contributing towards it. One of the big ideas… electric trucks.
Transportation makes up 17% of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions. With Australia having 5% of the world’s land mass consisting of 7.692 million square kilometers, it’s hardly surprising that on average, 698 million kilometers are driven daily. With so many remote towns across Australia and all major cities being dotted around the coastline, transportation is a crucial part of the Australian culture and economy. This is why finding alternatives to lower the rate of carbon emissions is a major priority. This is why electric vehicles are becoming so popular, predictions at this current time suggest they will control at least half of the major markets by 2030.
The best solution for long haul travel would be change and charge stations. This idea stems from the familiar ‘swap and go’ gas bottle model. With the flexibility to change the electric powered battery in less than 3 minutes that fits in over 90% of electric trucks it would eliminate the need to wait 12 hours for charging. The change and charge stations will be first placed between Brisbane and Sydney and will be distanced in accordance with the mandatory driver fatigue stops. The batteries average between 400-600km per charge, this is a huge development when you take the Australia post electric trucks into consideration. Australia Post recently added 20 electric trucks to their fleet however, they have a limited 100km of travel with a full load.
Coles is another company aiming for a more environmentally friendly way of transporting goods. They have recently partnered with Linfox Logistics in order to have the first electric truck powered by 100% renewable energy. In addition, Linfox Logistics has said this truck will avoid more than 60 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions each year.
There is more news for Australia on the horizon as a US-based company has partnered with Smith Electric Australia has hopes of building an assembly plant in either Melbourne or Brisbane with the vision of building at least 200 light delivery trucks a year. With electric vehicles being 70% more cost effective and batteries for electric vehicles are now 30% the price of what they were 5 years ago, they are both financially and environmentally friendly.
So what is APF doing to combat their transport emissions? Well, all of our warehouse equipment such as forklifts, reach trucks and electric pallet jacks are battery operated and our warehouse roofs are covered in solar panels connected to batteries in order store the solar energy harvested. At APF we are always looking for ways to improve our contribution to greenhouse emissions, that is why we are looking at electric trucks in conjunction with our own composting/worm farm system to better our contributions to landfill. Separating our waste and recycling is also helping to reduce our carbon footprint. Furthermore, APF is always striving for excellence to ensure our customers that we are doing everything we can to make our policies and procedures as effective as possible, in this case, with the goal to become carbon neutral.
