Is Hybrid-electric Vehicles The Life Line For Courier Services

One of the world’s biggest courier companies, Fedex, has just added 10 hybrid-electric vehicles to its UK fleet.

The makers of the vehicles are Modec a London based company. The company say that each van should save between 10 – 11 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year, travelling an average of 14,000 miles per year.

The vans are made perfectly for delivering parcels  in a city environments.  The vans run on batteries giving the vans a range of 60-100 miles on one night charge depending on the battery choice, and with a max speed of 50 mph and a pay load of 2 tonnes. The rate of battery development is continuing to accelerate and it’s not unlikely to have a product that can store up to three times more energy within three years.

The Modec claims that it’s hybrid van will cost  the same as an equivalent diesel van within three years, if battery costs continue to fall at the predicted rate.  With fuel costs of only 7p per mile compared to 29p for equivalent diesel van the Modec vehicles are not only good for the environment, they also look as if they’re going to be good for the wallet too!

Death Threat To Courier Companys

Fuel Prices are set to peak around 120p per litre by the end of this year, this will spell death to a lot of small independent courier companies.  At the  price of  103.6p per litre now its hard enough to make a living, but if fuel rises to 120p per litre it will just kill off lots of courier’s businesses.

The latest increases in fuel have come from the escalating cost of crude oil.  Its expected that the cost of a barrel of oil will more than double to around $145 – $147 by the end of the year.  And with the 2p per litre increase in fuel tax in September and the vat returning to 17.5% by the end of the year, its not good news.

I think its time that the transport industry to get together and put pressure on the government to subsidize the fuel the same way that they do for farmers who use red diesel.  Why not let the transport companies use red diesel at a reduced cost in commercial vehicles only.  This would keep them in business and help lift the UK economy out of recession.