Digital Catapult working to cut road emissions by reducing empty trucks

(London, 06 April): Digital Catapult, the UK authority on advanced digital technology, has today announced an ambitious new project, the Logistics Living Lab, to cut the carbon emissions of empty and near-empty delivery trucks on the road. The project comes as road freight transportation and removal services produced 11.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions in 2020, threatening the progress in the UK to reach net zero by 2050. 

Freight accounts for 31% of all UK transport CO2 emissions, and these emissions are the main driver of climate related risks including climate change and extreme weather. This is where the Logistics Living Lab will make a difference, by leveraging emerging technologies including distributed ledger technology (DLT) and the internet of things (IoT) to reduce the number of empty trucks releasing pollutants into the atmosphere on roads across the country.  

The Logistics Living Lab will see the development of a shared digital infrastructure for more intelligent management of vehicle slot filling, routing, and tracking to allow competing logistics providers to safely share information available truck space across their collective fleets, without the need for a single party needing full control or visibility of the whole system. 

The infrastructure, underpinned by DLT, aims to deliver greater coordination across the logistics sector without compromises to commercial sensitivity and security of data, while enabling greater operational efficiency.

The project brings together five leading digital innovators including Vodafone Digital Asset Broker, Microsoft, Yusen Logistics, Fuuse, and Parity Technologies. Digital Catapult are leading the consortium of companies, with a shared goal of reducing emissions and increasing capacity utilisation, as it looks to encourage broader adoption of sustainable innovation in business and industry. The project will run until September 2024. 

The Logistics Living Lab project is part of Digital Catapult’s Made Smarter Innovation Digital Supply Chain Hub which aims to make supply chains more efficient, resilient and sustainable by developing and promoting the adoption of advanced digital technologies in supply chains across the UK. It comes as a more practical approach to solving UK manufacturing and logistics challenges is needed, including the reduction of road congestion, improvement of customer experience, and bringing the UK closer to its net zero ambitions.

There will be an opportunity to learn more about this project through an observer gallery, being set up by Digital Catapult which will allow organisations to build on the work of this exciting pilot with regular showcases of the work to date. This will begin in May. If this is of interest, register to keep up to date with our news on the Digital Supply Chain Hub site.

Notes to editor

 

Made Smarter Innovation | Digital Supply Chain Hub is delivered by Digital Catapult, funded by the Made Smarter Innovation challenge at UK Research and Innovation.

About Digital Catapult

Digital Catapult is the UK authority on advanced digital technology. Through collaboration and innovation, we accelerate industry adoption to drive growth and opportunity across the economy.

We bring together an expert and enterprising community of researchers, startups, scaleups and industry leaders to discover new ways to solve big challenges that will unlock the UK’s future potential. Through our specialist programmes and experimental facilities, we make sure that innovation thrives and the right solutions make it to the real world.

Our goal is to accelerate new possibilities in everything we do and for every business we partner with the journey – breaking down barriers, de-risking innovation, opening up markets and responsibly shaping the products, services and experiences of the future.

Digital Catapult is part of the Catapult Network that supports businesses in transforming great ideas into valuable products and services. We are a network of world-leading technology and innovation centres established by Innovate UK. 

About Made Smarter Innovation | Digital Supply Chain Hub 

The Made Smarter Innovation | Digital Supply Chain Hub is a digital innovation ecosystem that empowers individuals and organisations to work together to make supply chains smarter. 

Developed by Digital Catapult and funded by the Made Smarter Innovation challenge at UKRI, the Hub will transform UK manufacturing by accelerating digital innovation – making supply chains more efficient, resilient and sustainable. 

We’re harnessing the power of UK manufacturing, bringing businesses and researchers together to develop new solutions, tackling sector specific and industry wide challenges, and building a powerful UK supply chain community. 

For more information, visit www.digitalsupplychainhub.uk