Business services specialist Commercial
Group, operator of the UK’s largest
hydrogen-enabled commercial fleet, has
announced plans to further reduce carbon
emissions from its delivery vehicles.
It is taking part in two Government-funded
projects on technology innovation for zero-
emission delivery vehicles and has achieved
official ‘Go Ultra Low Company’ status after
deploying its first electric van.
The Government-funded projects, part of
the Low Emission Freight and Logistics Trial,
are being led by Arcola Energy and ULEMCo.
The goal is to develop zero and low emissions
technologies with the capability to power large
delivery vehicles that cover a wide range.
Arcola Energy is developing the UK’s first
hydrogen-electric hybrid drivetrain for the most
popular commercial vehicle type, the 3.5T van.
This will be installed in a Commercial Group van
with a 1,000kg payload and trialled across an
operating range of up to 120 miles.
The ULEMCo project involves the
deployment of trucks and vans fitted
with hydrogen dual-fuel technology, with
Commercial Group subsidiaryWiles Greenworld
operating two delivery vans powered by
hydrogen dual-fuel in the London area.
Separately, Commercial Group is now using
a Nissan e-NV200 electric van, rather than
a diesel vehicle, to deliver office supplies to
customers inWest London. Use of the van,
coupled with a commitment to ensure at
least 5% of its fleet comprises plug-in electric
vehicles by 2020, has helped the Group secure
Go Ultra Low Company status.
Commercial Group senior sustainability
executive Andrew McKenzie said: “It’s 10 years
since we started looking at ways to minimise
the carbon emissions of our delivery vehicles.We
had a lot of success initially, cutting emissions by
around 70% in three years. However, until now,
newer technologies for low or zero-emission
vehicles have not been suitable for large vans
with a high payload and wide operating range.
We’re determined to play an active role in the
development of solutions that overcome this
challenge.”
Perkbox expands operations
with new Sheffield office
Customer engagement platform Perkbox
has opened a new Sheffield office for 100
employees, following a successful year, in
which it won a number of industry awards
and became Seedrs’ biggest crowdfunding
round thus far, raising £4.353 million.
Saurav Chopra, CEO & co-founder of
Perkbox, said: “The opening of a new office in a
new city is a very exciting stage in our growth
process and the team in Sheffield will play
an integral role in our future development.
Having a base in the North of the country will
help us to break out of the capital and expand
nationwide.”
New fleet to drive Antalis
forward
Antalis, Europe’s leading paper, packaging
and visual communications merchant, has
commissioned 81 new trucks as part of a £5m
investment to modernise its 160-strong fleet.
The new DAF Euro VI curtain-sided vehicles
will be manufactured at the Leyland plant in
Lancashire and will be contract-hired as part
of a seven-year deal with commercial fleet
services partner Fraikin. The vehicles, which will
all feature brand new livery, offer the very latest
technology for improved driver comfort and
safety and lower CO2 emissions.
Antalis makes nearly 800,000 deliveries of
paper, packaging and sign and display products
every year from its network of central and
regional distribution centres to customers across
the UK and Ireland.
David Hunter, Antalis regional managing
director for UK, Ireland and Southern Africa, said:
“This is a significant investment in the future of
the company. The new vehicles will modernise
our existing fleet and ensure that our logistics
operation is well placed to support the changing
needs of a dynamic and growing business.We
look forward to putting the new fleet into service
over the coming months.”
Commercial Group accelerates green fleet strategy
Visible air pollution
Blueair, the air purifier expert, has introduced
a free digital service that shows outdoor air
hazards in your locality. Using data from
monitoring stations around the world, Air
View provides a 360 degree street view of
any address, showing air-borne particles and
gases. The user can click on each pollutant to
learn more about compounds, such as sulfur
dioxide, pollen and ozone, and how they
affect one’s health.
airview.blueair.com
BULLETIN
Interrupting discussions
improves decision-making
Teams make better decisions if they are
interrupted with advice during a task, rather
than simply advised before it, research from
UCL School of Management reveals.
In a study published in
Organizational
Behavior and Human Decision Processes
,
Professor Colin Fisher looked at the timing and
impact of formal interventions in decision-
making groups and found that giving teams
advice ahead of time to prevent problems from
emerging doesn’t work as well as interrupting
them with in-process interventions.
“The findings go against the conventional
wisdom that prevention is always better than
cure. Teams that were interrupted had more
productive discussions on a variety of measures,
improving the quality of the decisions they
made. Surprisingly, it didn’t matter specifically
how long we waited to intervene, so long as the
group had already begun its discussion,” said
Professor Fisher.
Professional pencils
Derwent, the British fine art brand, has unveiled a new-
look website and URL optimised for tablet devices, with an
improved user friendly navigation menu and a new Derwent
blog with weekly postings and inspiration from the art
community.
Among the new ‘professional range’ products featured on
the site are the Derwent Precision mechanical pencil, featuring
a full metal barrel and 0.5 and 0.7 graphite core sizes, and a new
coloured pencil collection, Derwent Procolour, with 72 easy to
blend, high pigment colours.
Spring 2017
| P2P Magazine |
07
