Tesco has started using a chilled rail service to bring fruit and vegetables to Britain from Spain, cutting its reliance on lorries. This way, the supermarket chain could be leading the way with its increased use of rail freight during the ongoing HGV driver shortage crisis in Britain. The company is ramping up its rail use from 65,000 containers a year to 90,000 by November or December.
“We’re one of the few if not the only grocery retailer in the UK that uses rail extensively,” Ken Murphy, chief executive of Tesco, told export.org.uk. Murphy said the move has helped Tesco during the ongoing shortage of HGV drivers and could reduce the firm’s use of road for freight by 22 million miles a year.
The shift comes after Tesco and other supermarkets resorted to offering signing-on bonuses of £1,000 or more to would-be HGV drivers. Rail delivery service Varamis Rail has proposed using electric trains to carry long haul deliveries of light goods between different transport hubs, with last mile delivery by sustainable road vehicles.
Rail of course has the lowest carbon footprint out of all the major means of transport, with only an eighth of the carbon footprint of air travel and a third that of road.
