First Hydrogen is set to collaborate with several parcel delivery companies later in the year for operational trials of its demonstrator vehicles.
Building on the success of initial fleet operator road trials already carried out in the UK, First Hydrogen is now moving to work with parcel delivery companies striving to enhance their growing green fleets. Facing a specific set of challenges, parcel delivery firms are increasingly turning to other zero emissions technologies, as well as batteries, in an effort to ensure they can still deliver on their commercial and environmental targets.
These fleets are those that typically make up the middle and final stages of the supply chain and handle shorter journeys, transporting items from local hubs to consumers or end users. However, there has been something of a shift, with fleets increasingly embarking on longer routes, taking them from distribution centres to lockers and shops with parcel collection services or pick up and drop off points. The locker model allows for fewer steps, creating two thirds less carbon than conventional home deliveries. Using greener vehicles can push this down further still.
Steve Gill, First Hydrogen Automotive CEO, explained that hydrogen mobility is increasingly becoming a realistic solution to challenges last-mile delivery operators face, in light of carbon reduction targets, low and zero emission zones in cities and the phasing out of diesel and petrol-powered vehicles.
Gill continued: “Fleet managers are realizing that battery electric vehicles (BEV) alone will not provide the reliability and operational flexibility required to meet customer demands. Future fleets require a mix of BEV and FCEV to overcome these obstacles and hit net zero targets. The large, growing parcel delivery sector desperately needs to build environmentally friendly and commercially viable fleets, and our hydrogen LCV can help to do that.”
