Tesco and Suppliers Deliver A Greener Christmas by Reducing Truck Use
The “Tetris”-style trial that Tesco and its suppliers have been using to combine their deliveries to distribution centers has resulted in annual savings of over 400,000 road miles and a reduction of more than 450 tons of CO2.
In order to lessen the amount of traffic on the roads during the holiday season, the distribution teams of Tesco have teamed up with 15 of the retailer’s most important suppliers.
The team responsible for “road traffic control” at the retailer has been hard at work reviewing which suppliers deliver to the same locations. As a result of their efforts, the retailer has been able to consolidate and streamline the routes that suppliers take when delivering to distribution centers.
Because Christmas favorites like trifle, parsnips, broccoli, and carrots are being moved together, as well as because Tesco is combining loads, the company is able to prevent trucks from driving back and forth across the country in order to deliver products to customers’ shelves.
It has resulted in savings of over 400,000 truck miles per year, which is equivalent to 17 trips around the world.
The process finds products that can neatly fit into spaces on a truck by filling in the gaps. Because of the modification, more than 3,400 trucks have been taken off the road, which has resulted in a reduction of more than 450 tons of CO2 emissions.
The following is what Tesco’s Head of Supplier Ordering, Trudy Wilson, had to say:
“We are thrilled to have been able to reduce emissions and costs for our suppliers as a result of our close collaboration with them and our facilitation of their sharing of each other’s transportation routes.
The project, which is modeled after the game Tetris, allows us to make the most efficient use of the space in our trucks during the holiday season. This allows us to get the most out of each trip while also reducing the number of trucks that need to be on the road.
We are looking forward to an exciting year, and one of our goals for this coming year is to expand the project and bring on board additional suppliers.
