As reported in this months Van User magazine, Tesco.com is taking delivery of 795 Iveco light commercials. The online supermarket shopping subsidiary will become one of the UK’s largest operators of the daily AGile automated manual Gearbox, as the order includes 770 daily 35S11 vans equipped with the transmission.
The firm has also taken 25 natural gas powered EcoDaily vans, which will run on compressed biomethane (CBM) from producer Gasrec, said to have the lowest carbon intensity of any commercially available fuel. “The scale of the CBM trial will allow us to assess the performance of natural gas vehicles comprehensively”, says Dino Papas, fleet transport manager at Tesco.com “It represents one of the most important trials we have ever run and if it proves successful it could have a major impact on our future transport strategy.” The body work for the vehicle is being supplied by Lancashire firm Solomon, with refrigeration units supplied by Suffolk firm Hubbard and GAH, together with telematics from Microlise in nottingham.
As reported by Sharon Clancy earlier in the year, Tesco’s main driver behind implementing Microlise’s telematics into their home delivery fleet was fuel efficiency, and as stated by Dave Crellin, operations development manager they have already made 12% fuel savings accross their existing fleet.
