Since September 2020, Ringway has invested nearly £2,540,000 in electric fleet and plant and nearly £145,000 on EV charging points. The use of zero tailpipe emission vehicles currently saves an estimated 400kg of CO2 per day, it calculates.
Electric charging points have been installed at 17 depots so far, with plans to have multiple EV points at every highway service depot by 2025, to support the continuing electric commercial vehicle roll out.
In addition, Ringway also encourages the use of e-cargo and EAV (Electric Assisted Vehicles Limited) cargo bikes.
It has also been trialling solar tower lights and welfare cabins, electric handheld tools, artificial intelligence for asset management and works planning, and drones for inspections and investigations – all of which help to reduce environmental impact across the businesses, it says.
Ringway managing director Mike Notman said: “Our business has made a significant investment into creating sustainable carbon reductions across our operations. For us, this isn’t about purchasing offsets, or pushing the need for change further down the supply chain – it is about making real, tangible changes to the way we work today.
“We have reduced our total carbon emissions by 6% in the last two years. We still have a long way to go, but we are proud of what we have achieved to date and have high hopes for the strong partnerships we have built along the way to get to the level of change we need for the future.”
Ringway is expecting delivery of an additional 54 electric vehicles by the end of this year and at least a further 57 to be delivered by the end of 2022.
In August it took delivery of the UK’s first fully electric 7.2 tonne Iveco Daily cage tipper (pictured above) from Guest Truck & Van. The purpose-built chassis cab was fitted by Mackworth Conversion in Derby with a custom designed, lightweight Mackworth electro-hydraulically operated caged tipper body and tail lift for its street cleaning operations in Hounslow. Conversion from diesel was completed in the UK by Astra Vehicle Technologies It has a 115kWh energy storage system and a 150kW/1250Nm electric drive motor. Payload is 3.3 tonnes, maximum speed is 50mph and drive range is 188 mile.
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