• Employee
  • Contact us
  • nl
  • fr
ColruytGroup
ColruytGroup
  • About us
    Close
    To overview
    History
    Mission and values
    Key figures
    Sustainability
    See our sustainability strategy
    Choose wisely using the Nutri-Score
  • Brands
  • Investors
    Close
    To overview
    Financial press releases
    Annual Report 2019/20
    All annual reports
    Shareholders' information
    Read our Annual Report 2019/20
  • Press
    Close
    To overview
    Press releases
    Media material
    Recalls
  • Working for us
    Close
    To overview
    Do together
    Grow together
    Dream together
  • Employee
  • Contact us
  • nl
  • fr
  • {{item}}

Stories

  • {{item.name}}

Search our stories

Financieel EN

  • {{item.name}}

Search our financial press releases

Media EN

  • {{item.name}}

Search the media material
{}
start portlet menu bar

Web Content Viewer

Display content menu Display portlet menu
end portlet menu bar
  • Home
  • Stories
Share

Goods transport: reduce, transfer, make greener

1 April 2020

By the time your groceries end up in your shopping cart, they've already travelled far: from the supplier via the distribution centre to the shop shelves. Colruyt Group trucks crisscross the entire country each day. They do this as efficiently and sustainably as possible.

Full trucks, less mileage

It’s a shame if a truck drives half-empty. It creates unnecessary traffic, consumption and emissions. That's why we invest heavily in software for intelligent transport planning and why our trucks are always about 95% loaded when they drive from the distribution centres to the shops.

Colruyt truck
Our trucks always drive about 95% full.

For incoming deliveries to our distribution centres, we are achieving a load factor of 77 % by working together with suppliers who bundle their goods as efficiently as possible. Have you heard of ecocombis? These are longer trucks that can transport the same amount of goods with fewer journeys. Less mileage, means better for the environment.

Truck at dusk

Avoiding peak times

Our truck drivers avoid peak hours and traffic jams as much as possible. 49% of the time, our shops are restocked between 7 pm and 7 am. Why? So that trucks don't make traffic jams worse and we avoid extra crowding on the roads. What’s more, not only is this more (cost-) efficient, it also avoids unnecessary fuel consumption and improves road safety. To make deliveries as quiet as possible, we invest in training for our truck drivers, quiet trailers, low-noise pallets and covered loading docks at our stores.

We also encourage our suppliers to avoid peak times on the road. 24% of deliveries to our distribution centres are made at night.

Distribution centre Ollignies at night
Almost half of deliveries to our shops are made between 7 pm and 7 am.

A cleaner fleet

All our trucks comply with the European emission standard Euro 6. They therefore emit less nitrogen and particulates than previous generations. However, we don’t stop there; we continue to explore the potential of alternative and clean fuels. Our fleet already includes eight CNG lorries. At our logistics sites, we are also using two electric terminal trucks for pulling trailers. Their batteries are charged using our own generated renewable green electricity.

Colruyt Group trucks at the distribution center
We are testing alternative fuels for both light and heavy vans and trucks.

On land, at sea and by rail

Of course, you can avoid kilometres on the road by choosing other means of transport. The majority of our foreign suppliers organise their own transport. But there are a few suppliers from whom we collect the goods ourselves. So we choose the means of transport with the lowest ecological footprint. More than half of the international goods for which we organise transport make their journey by train or boat.

Even in Belgium, the percentage of journeys made via water is also growing. Every year, some 5,000 containers for Colruyt Group are transported by barge from the port of Antwerp to Brussels. This saves us a lot of truck rides, and it's also cheaper and more efficient.

Containers are brought to ship
Half of the international goods for which we organise transport arrive by train or boat.

With this initiative, we contribute to the following Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.

Industry, innovation & infrastructure Sustainable cities and communities Climate action

Read more about

  • Society
  • Environment

Other stories about

  • Colruyt Group

Also interesting

We sign up to the Green Deal Sustainable Urban Logistics 'Courteous and safe driving, I’m working on it.' New investment in road safety for freight transport Mobility: goods, employees and customers
Share
No results found
Read all stories
  • About us
  • Our Brands
  • Investors
  • Press
  • Working For Us
  • Contact us
  • Follow us
ColruytGroup
  • © Colruyt Group 2021
  • E-mail disclaimer
  • ${title}${badge}
${loading}