Haulage company Howard Tenens has been awarded a total of £1.26m from the ‘Low Carbon Truck Demonstration Trial’ funded by the Department for Transport and the Technology Strategy Board. This will be a major boost in driving forward Howard Tenens’ sustainable transport strategy.
One of the award criteria was that applications had to be collaborative on a match funded basis. This means that the partners’ contribution in this bid will ensure an investment level of £2.5m into low carbon transport. Swindon-based Howard Tenens partnered with vehicle operators John Lewis Partnership and Lenham Storage in the successful bid and will be supported by Cheney Manor-based CMS Supa Trak and Emissions Analytics for data and emissions verification.
The funding will enable gas refuelling infrastructure to be installed at Swindon and a total of 34 commercial heavy goods vehicles to be converted to dual fuel (gas/diesel). 12 of the vehicles will be operated by Howard Tenens and the remainder by partners John Lewis and Lenham Storage.
A proportion of the award will be committed to monitor and verify the performance of the vehicles. This is important because one of the criteria for the funding was that vehicles should deliver a minimum 15% reduction in CO2 emissions. Sophisticated on-board emissions and monitoring equipment will be installed in some of the vehicles to record fuel consumption and emissions as well as a telematics system which will monitor the diesel and gas usage on the dual fuel vehicles. This will enable accurate reporting of vehicle mpg via the vehicle’s on-board computer for the first time.
Catherine Crouch, Group CRS director, said: “Howard Tenens is absolutely delighted to have received this funding. It will enable us to build on the success of our current CNG and biogas programme and offer a truly sustainable transport solution to even more of our customers. We are committed to reducing the carbon footprint of our operations and this project will facilitate a substantial step forward in realising this ambition.”
