The Co-operative Food is trialling the use of rail to take lorry loads of freight off the motorways, a move the company claims will save more than a third of a million road miles a year.
A daily rail service is carrying produce between Daventry, close to the Co-operative’s National Distribution Centre at Coventry, and a rail freight terminal at Mossend, near its depot at Cumbernauld, in Scotland.
It is the first time The Co-operative has used rail freight on such a scale.
Each train takes two large containers, carrying the same volume that would normally require two HGVs to each make round trips of almost 650 miles – an annual saving of around 338,000 miles.
Instead, containers are taken each weekday afternoon by road from Coventry to the rail freight terminal at Daventry. The daily train, operated by freight carriers W.H. Malcolm, travels overnight, arriving at Mossend, in Lanarkshire, in the early hours of the following morning.
From Mossend, the containers are taken by road the short distance to Cumbernauld, before, ultimately, the contents are delivered to Co-operative food stores across Scotland.
Eventually, the switch from road to rail could save as many as eight HGVs making return journeys each day, saving more than 1.3 million road miles each year, the company says.
Mark Leonard, regional head of logistics for the Co-operative Food Supply Chain Logistics, said: “We’re trialling this to see how effective it is. It’s still early days, but so far it’s going well.
“It has the potential to save significant amounts of carbon each year, while at the same time ensuring efficient deliveries to Scotland.”
