The Government has recently made a series of announcements which affect the commercial freight sector as part of ‘Freight Week’, an initiative which aims to understand how the sector can transition to net zero, drive innovation and create new jobs. We’ve summarised the key points to help make sense of how these updates may impact you and your drivers.
Infrastructure demonstrator programme
The Department for Transport has released £200m from the zero emission heavy goods vehicle (HGV) and Infrastructure demonstrator programme originally announced in May 2022. The investment will not only ensure that more zero emissions trucks are hitting the UK’s roads, it will also provide essential supporting infrastructure. Included will be the development of 57 refuelling and electric charging sites, and the rollout of 370 zero emission HGVs, a crucial step in reducing their carbon footprint.
This demonstrator programme should provide the sector with the real-world information it is waiting for on how different technology solutions perform in live use cases, answering some of the practical questions operators have. As such it is going to be very important for businesses looking to set out long term strategy to reach 2040, when all new sales of HGV will be zero emission.