Sustainable transport is possible

The influence of climate change on society and business is becoming increased every day. Therefore, we, as the entrepreneurs, cannot be indifferent and must take specific actions to reduce our impact on the environment. Nowadays, an economic activity cannot be based exclusively on a strategy consisting only of economic aspects. What is particularly important is actual actions in terms of sustainable development. While being aware of the challenges faced by the Transport – Forwarding – Logistics industry within this field area, for several years we have been consistently implementing pro-environmental solutions. We realise, however, that there is still a lot of work to be done. Nevertheless, we believe that each action, even the smallest one, brings us closer to our ambitious objective.

We are actively seeking sustainable solutions in the road transport. Although, at the moment, completely CO₂-free solutions are at a very early stage of development, we are committed to testing and implementing the most environmentally friendly transport methods. We are gradually introducing gas-powered vehicles into our fleet and testing the possibility of using electric vehicles as a part of the local distribution. We are very incline to working with the suppliers for the purpose of improving the existing solutions. Thanks to a partnership to promote sustainability, we are able to achieve much better results in this area. We are also improving our internal processes regarding, for example, load optimisation, i.e., increasing fleet efficiency.

We also attentively track the routes of our heavy goods vehicles and plan them in such a way that they are as optimal as possible. These measures, among others, significantly reduce the carbon footprint (per kg) of the transported loads.

The COVID-19 pandemic proved to us very clearly how important the implementation of innovative solutions and digitalisation is in the operation of a company. Thanks to the fact that we have been systematically focusing on the IT development for several years, our company has not only adapted more quickly to the new reality and have been more resilient to market turmoil, but we have also been able to use this challenging moment for all of us to accelerate work on the further improvements. Already today, most of our clients use electronic invoices, which saves significant amounts of paper on an annual basis. In the forthcoming months we also plan to implement this solution for our haulage contractors. Automatic invoicing will result in the full digitalization of this process. The application dedicated to the drivers and clients, SUUS TRACKER, which will be launched at the end of 2020, is also of importance. We can already see the very significant advantages of this solution, not only in the area of visibility, but also in terms of improving safety and optimising the work of drivers and forwarders.

The implementation of pro-environmental solutions in the contract logistics is an important area of activity for ROHLIG SUUS Logistics, too. Although we are still at the beginning of the road to the sustainable operations, our warehouses are already equipped with e.g., intelligent LED lighting, skylights providing more daylight, and the facilities have been awarded the global BREEAM certificate, which sets the standard in the sustainable design and ecological construction. In the next steps we are planning, inter alia, to invest in the photovoltaic panels on the roofs or the use of rainwater for watering our lawns.

Although the entire Transport – Forwarding – Logistics industry still has a long way to go towards sustainable business, we believe that sustainable transport is possible, but it requires considerable commitment from the entire community, as well as investments in modern technologies.

Author:

ROHLIG SUUS Logistics

Last Updated on January 5, 2022 by Anastazja Lach