Asda has become the latest company to join an industry-led, voluntary scheme to measure and ultimately reduce carbon dioxide emissions from lorries and vans. Members of the Freight Transport Association’s (FTA) Logistics Carbon Reduction Scheme now represent over 50,000 commercial vehicles.

By providing fuel usage, fleet and activity data, ASDA, along with 55 other businesses in the LCRS, will help the logistics sector paint an accurate picture of its own carbon footprint.

Chris Hall, national transport manager for ASDA, said: “We continue to drive the focus into producing fewer, friendlier and cheaper miles and are delighted to be involved in this scheme. The opportunity to utilise this scheme to further develop our collaborative relationships in the industry and to set our agenda in relation to fleets and fuels of the future is vitally important.”

Datasets are collected routinely by operators to manage their businesses, so the administrative burden of providing data is minimal. Scheme members commit at a senior director level to participate in the scheme and to have their data independently verified by FTA as part of the reporting process. In the first annual report of the scheme, emissions from the sector were tracked from 2005 to 2009 and participants in the scheme committed collectively to an 8 per cent reduction in the intensity of carbon dioxide emissions by 2015 (compared to 2010 levels). Future annual reports will monitor the progress towards this target, with the next report due in late January.

Simon Chapman, chief economist, said: “It is great to have a heavy hitter like ASDA backing the scheme and it reflects how seriously the industry is taking its role in the carbon reduction agenda, after all, CO2 from freight accounts for a third of all transport emissions.

“Our first report revealed that progress has already been made through driver fuel efficiency training, use of biofuels and increases in vehicle carrying capacity. With fuel now accounting for around 40 per cent of the costs of running a truck, greater fuel efficiency that results in cutting carbon dioxide emissions is a prize every operator should be aiming for.”

While national carbon dioxide reduction targets commit the UK to an absolute cut in carbon dioxide emissions, LCRS focuses on producing less carbon per unit of resource or activity.

Chapman concluded: “It would be great if the investment being made by industry towards a low carbon future through such measures as alternative fuel, better vehicle technology, telematics and eco-driver training, was matched by support from the policy makers. Government can help by looking at higher capacity trucks, defending double deck trailers against a possible European height limit of 4 metres, making rail freight cheaper and easier to use, restoring rail freight grants and biofuel duty incentives and maintaining a fairer deal on fuel.”