Transport Scotland has published its Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGV) Decarbonisation Pathway paper to raise awareness around the key challenges to adoption including energy infrastructure, financial models, business confidence and workforce skills.
The national transport agency of Scotland has been invested in electric vehicles for more than a decade and is credited with founding ChargePlace Scotland, a nationwide EV charging network that ensured an equitable coverage across the country.
Over the last 18 months, Transport Scotland and the Zero Emission Truck Taskforce have turned their attention to trucks, working with key stakeholders across haulage, manufacturing, energy, government, trade unions and finance to understand the barriers to zero emission HGVs in Scotland.
You can read the full paper here, but while the Scottish Government remains technology agnostic, we’ll focus on the electric Heavy Goods Vehicle (eHGV) findings in the interests of our Electric Freightway programme.
Funded by the Department for Transport and delivered in partnership with Innovate UK, Electric Freightway aims to lay the foundations for the biggest and most advanced eHGV nationwide charging network, initially covering England, Scotland and Wales.
One of the key highlights from this Decarbonisation Pathway paper is the intent to use anonymised driver data to highlight the most popular heavy freight routes in Scotland as a proxy for where en route charging station locations will be most required. The paper also promotes the need for small haulier support, as they often do not have the resources to investigate the information required, or the budgets to be able to build new depot infrastructure.
Reflecting on the paper, Sam Clarke, Chief Vehicle Officer at GRIDSERVE, said: “It’s fantastic to have the UK and Scottish Governments so focussed on the decarbonisation of HGVs, and recognising how that mix of solutions may differ across different geographies. Our Electric Freightway programme will continue to promote this culture of collaboration as a way for operators to move through their decarbonisation journey faster.
“As a former owner operator, I know how vitally important SMEs are to the health of the HGV industry. Together, with our principal partner Hitachi ZeroCarbon, we’re working on several potential models that could help solve these challengers for hauliers while creating new revenue opportunities.”
Cabinet secretary for transport in Scotland, Fiona Hyslop, said: “Scotland’s economy – and society as a whole – rely on goods being moved with speed and efficiency, but these freight movements emit substantial greenhouse gases. We have worked collectively to understand and address the hurdles to transition.”
