All companies, regardless of their size or line of business, have a logistics component that needs to be decarbonized.

“Today, all companies—regardless of their size or line of business—have a logistics component that needs to be decarbonized. Awareness is there, but now is the time to take action. The strategies for decarbonization without operational constraints and without (or with only minimal) additional costs—such as energy efficiency or the switch to B100/HVO100—are already well underway, and that’s a good thing; we need to start there. However, there is a certain wait-and-see attitude toward solutions that would take decarbonization to the next level—solutions that involve operational changes or significant additional costs. To take things further—with solutions like electric trucks or rail transport—we need strong partnerships: no single company can bear the additional costs alone or shoulder all the effort. We must overcome this collective impasse, move beyond rigid stances, and build a dialogue. engine among stakeholders, based on a fair distribution of efforts. Because decarbonization beyond the quick wins It won't happen on its own—otherwise, we would have done it already—so we need to be proactive and do our part, whether in terms of economic or operational efforts. And It is possible to achieve deep decarbonization while remaining profitable. A good example is ADEO, one of our clients, which has adapted its requests for proposals to incorporate the constraints of electric transportation. This is the kind of proactive leadership we need to encourage.”

5 concrete examples I've given my clients

1️⃣ Adapt requests for proposals to take into account the specific characteristics of battery-powered electric trucks
ADEO has extended the duration of its requests for proposals for the routes it plans to convert to electric vehicles, in order to help carriers recoup the significant capital expenditures associated with this transition.

2️⃣ Be prepared to review your internal organization—and even slightly de-optimize it—if doing so will allow you to implement a transformative project
The ADN (Agence du Don en Nature) association has successfully switched to rail freight on the Lille-Lyon route and will soon do the same for the Lille-Marseille route, with only a slight additional cost (or even no additional cost at all, thanks to subsidies). Nevertheless, this has required a two-year effort, involving a significant investment of time to identify all the necessary partners, as well as a reorganization of their warehouse to accommodate the storage of pallets, since they are picked up less frequently.

3️⃣ Exchange data with customers and suppliers to determine an overall optimal solution
L'Oréal and Carrefour are sharing logistics data to work together to determine how to reduce empty returns and drive growth.

4️⃣ Examine the actual need in order to identify opportunities for cost savings by adapting the organization
Renault Trucks works with some of its customers to optimize the size of their fleets, thereby enabling them to invest in electric trucks (reducing the fleet size allows for higher CAPEX per truck).

5️⃣ Accept that decarbonization will entail additional costs, and distribute those costs fairly among the stakeholders
Kuehne&Nagel has developed a Book&Claim tool to offer its customers who wish to do so the opportunity to contribute to the additional costs of its investments in alternative energy sources (HVO100, electric trucks), resulting in reduced emissions. There is no direct physical link (since each customer accounts for only a portion of the volume in each truck), but the program maintains strict spatio-temporal consistency (more information in their white paper).

Need to understand where you stand? What are your key drivers? Or simply want to leverage our experience in your industry to help get things moving?

Contact