Company to supply and supervise packaged sewage treatment plants
Veolia Water Technologies Gulf was recently awarded a contract by Mohammed Abdulmohsin Al-Kharafi & Sons (Al-Kharafi) to supply, supervise, install and commission 53 AnoxKaldnes Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor (MBBR) packaged sewage treatment plants.
Veolia plant
This order is the largest ever received by Veolia for this type of packaged plants and will allow for 40,000 m3 of water to be reused each day in water-scarce Kuwait.
The compact and packaged sewage treatment units will be installed at various locations throughout the country where they will compensate a shortage in sewage handling.
Following treatment, the effluents will be reused for irrigation, therefore saving freshwater that would otherwise have been desalinated at high cost, particularly in terms of energy.
In Sabah Al Ahmad City, a planned community located 80km south of Kuwait City in Khiran Kuwait, 23 AnoxKaldnes MBBR package plants with a total treatment capacity of 17,000 cbm/day will be added to existing sewage treatment installations.
In West Abdullah City, new sewage treatment installations will be built and will include 27 package plants totalling 23,000 cbm/day. Finally, three more units will be installed as provisional items at other locations.
“After having worked on the Sulaibiya WWTP Expansion Project, we are honored to have been chosen by Al-Kharafi once again and we look forward to continuing our successful collaboration,” observed Thierry Froment, CEO, Veolia Water Technologies Middle East.
The first units will be delivered early in 2021, with all 53 units delivered in less than 12 months.
Carrier stays agile in a volatile air cargo environment
Turkish Cargo will soon provide global forwarders the ability to conduct real-time eBookings, access live rates, and see available air cargo capacity through WebCargo, a Freightos Group company. This provides critical agility as air cargo contends with unexpected shifts due to the global pandemic.
A Turkish Cargo freighter on the tarmac
“Live access to capacity and price supports our ongoing commitment to provide Hellman customers with outstanding service,” noted Christian Tesch, Director Airfreight Carrier Relations & Procurement at Hellmann Worldwide Logistics.
Turkish Cargo will first roll out on WebCargo in Spain and India, and will be quickly followed by roll outs in several more countries. With the airline’s shift to global eBookings, more than 20% of global air cargo capacity will now be digitized, providing more than 2,000 WebCargo forwarders customers across over 10,000 global branches with instant access to capacity and pricing.
“As the air cargo brand with one of the widest networks in the world, we focus on digital solutions,” remarked Turhan OZEN, Chief Cargo Officer, Turkish Airlines.
“In the past year, eBookings have increased tenfold on WebCargo, making it clear that the future of air cargo is digital,” commented Manel Galindo, CEO of WebCargo.
FedEx Express Europe has begun using renewable diesel– made from organic matter or waste materials – to fuel a portion of its company-owned trucks in the Netherlands.
As of the beginning of November, FedEx Express instructed the drivers of these heavyweight, long-distance vehicles to refuel using renewable diesel as an environmentally favourable alternative to fossil-fuel diesel. Trucks will use this fuel when they depart the recently reopened FedEx Express road-hub in Duiven, Netherlands.
The decarbonisation of the heavyweight transport sector is recognised as more challenging than parcel pick-up and delivery, where the transportation company has already outlined its goal to transition to a fully electric fleet by 2040. The required mileage range, time needed to refuel, and the fact that, by the very nature of their operation, heavy goods vehicles travel between territories means they often require refuelling in multiple countries.
Using synthetically-made diesel offers an interim solution with the promising ability to drive down ‘well-to wheel’ carbon emissions by as much as 80-90% per litre. It means that while technological solutions are still being developed to help the industry transition away from using fossil fuels altogether, we can already make decisions to influence and reduce our scope one carbon emissions in our linehaul truck network – those generated by our owned vehicles.
Vinay D’Souza, Senior Vice President Planning & Engineering, FedEx Express Europe
The opportunity for reducing emissions in linehaul trucking with this fuel depends not only on supply of the fuel, but also on the infrastructure. FedEx Express use of this renewable diesel is currently small-scale and limited to the Netherlands, where its use is encouraged on continental routes from the Netherlands.
The FedEx goal announced in March 2021, to achieve carbon-neutral operations globally by 2040, includes all FedEx owned and operated transportation including parcel pick-up and delivery, its extensive European linehaul truck network, and aircraft. It also includes the company’s scope three emissions that are generated by contracted transportation services that play a part in the FedEx network. By demonstrating support and adaptation of diesel alternatives, FedEx is striving to make alternative fuels more viable, scalable, and ultimately accessible across the industry, as solutions to decarbonise challenging transportation sectors in Europe.
DB Schenker is continuing to drive the green transformation in land transport and is consistently focusing on sustainable innovations. This week, the logistics service provider signed a cooperation agreement with Trailer Dynamics and the Krone Commercial Vehicle Group on the use of eTrailers in European land transport.
“This agreement marks a further step in the electrification of land transport,” says Cyrille Bonjean Executive Vice President Land Transport for DB Schenker in Europe. “It is essential for us to look for new sustainable solutions that can be integrated into our daily business. With the eTrailer from Trailer Dynamics, we have obtained another promising model for the future.”
Wolfgang Janda, Executive Vice President, Head of Network & Linehaul Management, DB Schenker, adds: “The use of eTrailers enables early entry into the phased transition to a completely CO2-free fleet. In our view, electric trailers do not represent a transitional technology but will instead be a firm component of our commercial vehicle fleet over the long term. This marks yet another step in our efforts to reduce our environmental footprint and become net-zero by 2040.”
Michael Nimtsch, Managing Director at Trailer Dynamics says: “The vision of Trailer Dynamics is to use eTrailers to make an important contribution to the decarbonization of the economy and sustainable and environmentally friendly logistics for long-haul trucks. With our cooperation partner DB Schenker, we are taking the next important step toward transforming this vision into reality.”
“Electrification, digitalization, automation, and decarbonization are the strategic goals that Krone will achieve with its innovative products – and especially the eTrailer. We are therefore very pleased that we not only share these goals with our long-standing customer DB Schenker; we are also jointly making them a reality with this eTrailer project.”, adds Dr. Stefan Binnewies, CEO of Krone Holding.
The use of eTrailers makes trucks more sustainable and lowers their CO2 emissions.
The electrified trailers of Trailer Dynamics have an electric drive train that makes it possible to support the drive of the tractor unit. A specially developed component uses a patented sensor system to determine the driving dynamics of the tractor-trailer combination and then readjusts the eTrailer so that the eTrailer supports the tractor unit. The tractor unit cannot be overridden at any time, however. The electric drive train also allows energy to be recovered during braking.
The eTrailer’s drive control system operates independently, so no interface with the tractor is necessary. In addition, the trailers can be combined and used with tractor units from all manufacturers. The eTrailers support diesel, gas, electric, and hydrogen-powered tractors.
The trailers can be equipped with 300kWh, 450kWh, or 600kWh batteries as required. This can extend the range of electric tractors by up to 500 km, depending on the use case, and also significantly reduce the fuel consumption of conventional diesel tractors. CO2 emissions can thus be reduced by 20%-40%.
The logistics provider will successively roll out these 2,000 eTrailers across its European network starting in 2024.
Known as the ‘1Hub,’ the £30m state-of-the-art groupage depot is the largest of its kind in the UK. Since it was constructed in 2015 at a key gateway location close to the Dartford Crossing, it has seen a 15 per cent increase year on year in the number of European road freight consignments being managed.
Europa’s 1Hub
Today a record 40,000 consignments per month pass through the terminal, thanks to the unique addition of Europa Flow, the firm’s frictionless customs product which optimises the movement of goods to and from the continent post-Brexit.
Dan Cook, Group Operations Director at Europa Worldwide Group, explained: “Europa takes bold steps to drive out complexity and deliver simple, effective transactions. For our Road network, developing the Dartford site has meant a significant restructure and investment to transform the 1Hub into the unique transit terminal it is today.
“We believe Dartford is an optimum location to consolidate groupage destined for the continent, or for goods arriving from it for onward distribution though out the UK, with cargo heading in its natural direction of travel to its end destination.
“Our 1Hub is one of the most simple, efficient and highest quality of any European distribution platforms, with a number of innovative operational concepts, all supported by excellent IT.
“These latest statistics are testament to how our road freight network infrastructure delivers the best solution for every type of shipment, as well as to the hard work of our teams working on the ground.”
With 37 direct European connections, and 12 daily connections to UK distribution platforms, 1Hub facilitates the movement of exported and imported goods effectively and is at the heart of Europa’s 16 strong branch network across the UK.
It is at Europa’s 1Hub that over 35 independent partners and 260 Europa trailers combine to ensure goods are moved seamlessly to and from the continent.
To mark these latest milestones, Europa has launched a new video. It takes viewers on a virtual tour of the site, showing how the latest technology boosts shipping efficiencies, drives down costs, delivers real-time visibility of goods and ensures customer satisfaction.
The footage highlights how consignments arrive in side-loaded trucks, as they do each night, from Europa’s domestic depots around the UK and Ireland. These are then discharged into the side of the building specifically designed to accommodate level access side loading.
The reverse process is also captured, illustrating how, on the opposite side of the building, the 1Hub’s design changes to accommodate trucks leaving for and arriving from the continent. In both cases, location control and customs clearance information are shown to all internal users to ensure slick handling and turnaround. The terminal is also racked, so each consignment is assigned a specific rack location. By using double deck trailers, the need for double stacking is removed, reducing the risk of any damage prior to onward movement.
Dan continued: “This video is all about giving an insight into how our high-tech, purpose-built 1Hub works day-to-day. It captures the scale of our super-sized facility – which is large enough to house seven football pitches – and shows the longstanding, dedicated and highly trained team in action as they safely manage the tried and tested site processes.
“Here, Europa performs the full range of processes to optimise flows, offering a highly competitive and comprehensive logistics infrastructure that reduces transit times through daily structured departures, and ensures high quality for our customers.
“No other European groupage freight operator works in this way, making Europa unique in how it keeps vital European supply chains moving. The introduction of Europa Flow – our market-leading, frictionless customs product – launched in response to Brexit, has played a crucial role over the past 18 months in ensuring this remains the case.”
Evidence compiled by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows Brexit and the pandemic have negatively impacted on domestic and global supply chains. More than a quarter of UK firms have reported logistics disruptions, and one in twenty said they had made radical changes to supply chains as the transition period ended. For many, the focus is now on diversification and re-shoring to bring supplier links closer to home.
For Europa, this situation means there is an even greater need – particularly amidst predictions of a Eurozone downturn – to balance any risks with its continued ambition to set the pace in the market, helping customers adapt and optimise along the way. Europa Flow is proving pivotal to this approach, allowing customers the space to conduct their operations as ‘business as usual’ whilst they focus on building up future resilience.
over £200 million invested to launch world’s largest fleet of zero emission heavy goods vehicles (HGVs), accelerating plans to decarbonise road freight
plans to eliminate fossil fuels from HGV haulage will help to reduce delivery costs and protect consumers from rising fuel prices in the long term
new plans support government’s world-leading pledges made at COP26, ensuring all new HGVs sold in the UK will be zero emission by 2040
The world’s largest fleet of zero emission HGVs will take to UK roads through plans to achieve cleaner air and greener jobs, while helping to keep costs down on consumer goods. Transport Minister Trudy Harrison revealed over £200 million of government funding will be injected into an extensive zero emission road freight demonstrator programme, at Logistics UK’s Future Logistics Conference this morning (12 May 2022).
The 3-year comparative programme will begin later this year to help decarbonise the UK’s freight industry with initial competitions for battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell technology launching shortly.
This could see hundreds more zero-emission HGVs rolled out across the nation and save the industry money, thanks to overall running costs of green vehicles being cheaper than petrol and diesel equivalents. More efficient deliveries will in turn enable haulage companies to keep the price of goods down and protect customers from rising costs.
The transition to zero-emission trucks will also help improve air quality, create greener jobs and deliver on COP26 pledges while reducing reliance on imports of foreign oil. Eliminating fossil fuels from road freight and improving the UK’s energy supply resilience will help to protect drivers and businesses from increasing global energy prices.
The demonstrations will help gather evidence on the future refuelling and recharging infrastructure needed to drive the smooth transition to a zero-emission freight sector by 2050.
Our road freight industry is one of the most efficient in the world and contributes over £13 billion to the UK economy each year.
But we must accelerate our journey towards our net zero goals, and we’re committed to leading the way globally on non-zero emission road vehicles.
Our ambitious plans will continue to ensure food is stocked on the shelves and goods are supplied while eliminating fossil fuels from HGVs and making our freight sector green for good.
Transport Minister, Trudy Harrison
The demonstrations will help the UK’s freight sector reduce its reliance on fossil fuels by finding which zero emission technologies are best suited to the heaviest road vehicles in the UK.
An open-call competition will be launched for manufacturers, energy providers and fleet and infrastructure operators to showcase their green technology on UK roads. This will begin with demonstrations of battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell HGVs.
The announcement expands the Department for Transport’s (DfT) successful £20 million zero emission road freight trials which ran last year, delivered by Innovate UK.
As part of these trials, commercial vehicle manufacturer Leyland Trucks rolled out 20 DAF battery electric HGVs for use by public sector organisations, including the NHS and local authorities, to support the uptake of battery electric trucks, enabling learning to be gathered from field testing vehicles in a real-world, real-time logistics environment.
This project, along with 6 successful feasibility studies, helped prepare for the demonstrations, which will take place at scale over the coming years.
Logistics businesses are committed to decarbonising their operations, but to ensure a smooth transition they need clarity on the path to zero tailpipe emission HGVs. The trials announced today will play a crucial role in identifying the right technological solutions to help enable this.
Michelle Gardner, Acting Deputy Director – Public Policy, Logistics UK
During the speech in Farnborough, among industry leaders, Minister Harrison articulated plans to deliver on ambitious pledges made at COP26 last year that all new HGVs sold in the UK will be zero emission from 2040. This puts the UK on course to be the fastest G7 country to decarbonise its fleet of road vehicles.
Further to this, DfT is fulfilling its commitment to consult with industry to identify potential exemptions to the 2035 phase out date for HGVs, weighing 26 tonnes and under, which may need longer to transition to zero emission technologies. The call for evidence opened today and will last until 22 July 2022.
These announcements and investment reaffirm the government’s commitment to eliminating carbon emissions from road freight while supporting economic growth, improving air quality, and making UK towns and cities healthier places to live.
Changes to simplify the process to become a heavy goods vehicle (HGV) driver to help deal with the HGV driver shortage were introduced by the government in 2021. These included:
allowing the off-road part of the lorry test to be carried out by non-DVSA assessors
allowing drivers to take one test to drive both a rigid and articulated lorry
removing the need for drivers to do a separate car and trailer test
In addition to these changes:
DVSA recruited more vocational driving examiners to help make more tests available in the areas of where demand is highest
vocational driving examiners carried out overtime, including at weekends and on public holidays
making 11,000 HGV driver training places available through Skills Bootcamps
injecting a major and sustained boost to the number of HGV driving tests available
investing £52.5 million in improvements in roadside facilities and lorry parking
Industry bodies are reporting the number of HGV drivers is stabilising
Since the government intervened, the sector has started to recover and industry bodies are reporting positively on the number of HGV drivers stabilising.
They indicate that the initiatives introduced by government and industry have started to yield results, showing that perceptions of the industry are changing as a result of government support and more people are looking to train and qualify as HGV drivers.
It comes as part of wider government efforts to help more people into work, since this is the best way to support families in the long-term while growing the economy to address the cost of living.
The government took swift action and introduced 33 measures to support our vital freight sector throughout a global driver shortage and to maintain our country’s supply chains.
Those measures have worked, with the number of lorry driver tests being taken on the rise, and the sector reporting driver numbers are stabilising.
We’ll continue to work with the industry to remove any potential barriers to a rewarding, successful career in logistics and to boost and maintain driver numbers.
Dhumira Wellington, Transport Minister
We recognise the haulage industry keeps the wheels of our economy turning. I want to say thank you to all vocational training providers and our vocational driving examiners for supporting the changes.
It’s their hard work and commitment that has allowed us to offer an additional 11,197 tests and increase the number of drivers joining the industry.
The Port of Dover reports a “critical incident”, blaming a four-hour wait to the ferry terminal on “woefully inadequate” French border control.
The port apologised to holidaymakers and HGV drivers who were still stuck in queue this morning, saying they were “deeply frustrated” with the Police Aux Frontieres (PAF), who had fallen short of a successful first weekend of the peak summer getaway period.
Doug Bannister, the port’s CE told BBC Kent that French border controls were “insufficiently resourced,” and that the port and its users had been “badly let down.”
According to reports, just six of the 12 passport booths operated by French customs officials at Dover are currently open.
Travellers who have been waiting in five-hour queues to complete border checks before checking in for their ferry have described “zero movement” on Twitter.
Eurotunnel is unaffected, although it will be unable to take passengers from Dover.
In a statement, the port claimed it had made “significant investment” in the run-up to summer, boosting interim French border control booths by 50% and improving traffic systems.
A team of newly trained “passenger champions” has been on standby to help customers who have become stranded at the port.
“The Dover route remains the most popular sea route to France and France remains one of the key holiday destinations for British families,” the Port concluded in its statement.
“We know that resource is finite, but the popularity of Dover is not a surprise. Regrettably, the PAF resource has been insufficient and has fallen far short of what is required to ensure a smooth first weekend of the peak summer getaway period.
“We will continue to work with all Kent partners to look after those caught up in the current situation,”
The UK faces more traffic disruption as the Fuel Price Stand Against Tax campaign group claims fuel protests will be held today in Birmingham, Cardiff, Liverpool, London and Manchester.
The NHS will soon be receiving medical consumable products delivered by a fleet of eight fully electric trucks, as part of the Department for Transport’s £10 million Battery Electric Truck Trial (BETT).
NHS Supply Chain in partnership with its logistics provider Unipart Logistics is one of the key operators in the 12-month pilot project which is seeing 20 DAF LF Electric trucks using pioneering technology entering service with the NHS and local authorities.
NHS Supply Chain is commencing use of eight 19 tonne LF Electric rigids with refrigerated bodies at four locations across the country: Bury St Edmunds, Normanton, Rugby and Alfreton. It will feed back real time performance data for the zero emission vehicles.
The BETT focuses on vehicles, charging infrastructure, user training, repair and maintenance, and total-cost-of- ownership, providing operational insight across a variety of duty cycles. It is part of the Government’s wider £20 million zero emission road freight trials and is delivered using the Small Business Research Initiative, a process bringing together government challenges and ideas from business to create innovative solutions.
NHS Supply Chain’s Director of Supply Chain Chris Holmes said:“It is really exciting to be part of one of the largest and most significant deployments of zero emission heavy goods vehicles in the UK to date. Everything on our zero emission vehicles is electric, even the refrigeration units.
“Driving down our carbon emissions is one of our top priorities and this is just one of the ways we’re supporting the NHS to achieve their net zero target by 2045, which has wide ranging health benefits for us all, not least around air quality.”
Claire Salmon, Unipart Logistics NHS Supply Chain Director, added: “We are excited to be working with our customer NHS Supply Chain to run the Battery Electric Truck Trial, which also supports the Unipart UN Race To Zero commitment to be carbon neutral by 2030 and net zero by 2050. The trial will provide us with valuable insight into operating fully-electric vehicles of this size as part of our fleet, so we can understand how best to facilitate a charging network, driver training and the potential to grow this technology in the future. We are committed to delivering a safe and sustainable service in support of our frontline care customers.”
The trucks have entered day-to-day operations while at the same time gathering real-time performance data; the results from which will be used in an interactive website to inform future fleet operator buying decisions and help stimulate the sale of battery electric trucks. With the Government having set ambitious targets to end the sale of non-zero emission heavy goods vehicles from 2035 (for vehicles of 26-tonne Gross Vehicle Weight – the maximum weight of the vehicle plus the load and below, and 2040 for heavier vehicles) the BETT is expected to make a significant and positive impact upon the move to zero emission vehicles.
All the vehicles in the trial feature the distinctive Battery Electric Truck Trial logo.
Europa Road, part of leading logistics operator Europa Worldwide Group, has continued to invest in its UK artic fleet, with the introduction of five new high spec Renault T range 6 x 2440 13 L trucks into its 50 strong fleet.
This comes as part of the drive to improve the comfort credentials for its drivers, with five more Renaults due to join the fleet in May, and an ongoing replacement strategy to renew the whole artic fleet over the next 2 years.
Europa Road’s fleet was shifted to be exclusively Renault some years ago. The latest models were specifically identified as optimum replacements for older vehicles which were nearing the end of their life within the ongoing rolling stock management programme.
Dan Cook, Operations Director for Europa Road, commented:“As part of the expansion of the full and part load unaccompanied business, Europa has increased its artic fleet to support the desire to undertake more inhouse port haulage.
“This means a change to the traditional Europa UK haulage model, where the day starts and finishes at Dartford, and an increase in ‘tramping,’ meaning the vehicle and driver are away from base for several days at a time.
“For this reason, now more than ever, it is necessary to ensure the most appropriate equipment to reflect comfort and facilities for drivers is provided.”
The ongoing HGV driver shortage, still estimated to be around 100,000 means it is vital that driver satisfaction is put to the forefront of investment considerations.
In taking small steps to improve the working conditions of its valued driving team, Europa Road continues to ensure it is doing all it can to retain those fulfilling this crucial role, which is vital to the supply chains of all customers.
By choosing new trucks with high end features in the cab’s design – such as a microwave, a fridge, and an inverter – drivers are able to plug in other home creature comforts without issue.
There is also extra storage capacity for both food and personal items, making the driver more comfortable when away from home for days at a time.
New Europa Renault Trucks
Speaking about the latest upgrades, Malcolm Castle, General Manager – Domestic Transport at Europa Road, commented:“It is absolutely critical that our vehicles are kept in the best possible condition to enable our European road freight sales network to operate seamlessly and without interruption.
“The introduction of these five new top-spec Renault Trucks, with more to follow, show our drivers that they are valued and that we will go the extra mile to ensure they can do their job in comfort and in safety.
“Our drivers are the beating heart of Europa Road’s operations, and we want them to know we will always strive to invest in the best possible vehicles on the market.”
The Renault T models, and all other trucks in Europa Road’s fleet, meet the stringent Euro 6 emissions standards to ensure their environmental impacts are kept to a minimum.
Moves are also afoot to determine what other adjustments might be made following on from Government’s recent endorsement of the introduction of more aerodynamic features and longer cabs to reduce fuel consumption.
Europa Road is fully committed to reducing its carbon footprint across the business and is developing plans to meet the phasing out of new fossil fuel vehicles in the commercial sector from 2030.
Operating from 13 local sales branch sites in the UK – with three more due to open imminently – Europa Road’s network groupage solution offers interconnectivity between each location and the state-of-the-art groupage hub at the Shield Road site in Dartford.
Customers benefit from scheduled, daily, round-trip trunking that allows all shipments to link into Europe every single day. All services are underpinned by the best online IT, shipment tracking, overall high performance, and local account management.
The last few years have seen major investment and growth for Europa Road, which invested over £5m in Europa Flow. This successfully allowed goods to move quickly and efficiently between the UK and EU with minimal delays post-Brexit.
Europa Worldwide Group is an ambitious independent logistics operator with four divisions – Europa Road, Europa Air & Sea, Europa Warehouse, and Continental Cargo Carriers. Europa has featured in The Sunday Times Top Track 250 for the third time and employs over 1,300 across the UK, Hong Kong, and Shanghai.
