With Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the festive season coming closer, today we look at the way in which those on-screen clicks have fundamentally changed the traffic on our roads.
In the UK, a steady decline in heavy goods vehicles has led to the rise of the van. Smaller, more agile and capable of carrying a significant load in dense urban areas, the small to medium van is the largest sector of UK vehicle growth, lending itself perfectly for routes with regular stops such as parcel and grocery delivery. Such is their popularity, the number of vans on UK roads grew 33% between 2000 and 2014*, with van miles driven reaching 45 billion.
In the US, the size of geography means that heavy truck numbers have remained steady while vehicles for light loads split between vans and pickup trucks. Nevertheless the trend for van sales is still upwards with 17.4 million new vehicles set to hit the road this year, rising to 17.6 million by 2020.**
With the introduction of city low emission zones and recent controversy relating to diesel engine calibration, there has been a very real move towards companies embracing electric powered vans, especially within towns. In the vanguard of this move is the postal, parcel and delivery sector, with operators such as the Royal Mail in the UK with 100 electric vans hitting the road in December 2017 and UPS in the US, who are looking to convert 1500 of its vehicles to electric serving New York City by 2020.
With electric vans still facing some limitations on battery range, using the optimal route has never been more important. With its portfolio of navigation and routing optimization options, ALK can provide vehicle specific solutions for vehicles of all sizes, thereby helping to turn those clicks to a delivery at your door.
Sources:
*UK Department of Transport – Road Use Statistics 2016
**www.statista.com
https://futurism.com/ups-nyc-electric-trucks/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/news/royal-mail-buys-100-electric-van