With the commencement of Net Zero Week, the NHS Supply Chain has introduced completely electric lorries as part of its fleet.
As part of the Department of Transport’s £10m Battery Electric Truck Trial (BETT), eight 19 tonne trucks will be integrated into the NHS Supply Chain’s fleet across four different locations – Bury St Edmunds, Normanton, Rugby, and Alfreton.
The BETT initiative will focus on the vehicles themselves, charging infrastructure across the country, user training, repair and maintenance, and the total cost of ownership of said vehicles.
The trail is also part of the government’s wider £20m “zero emission road freight trials”, which is being delivered under the Small Business Research Initiative.
NHS Supply Chain’s Director of Supply Chain, Chris Holmes, said: “It is really exciting to be part of one of the largest and most significant deployments of zero emission heavy goods vehicles in the UK to date. Everything on our zero emission vehicles is electric, even the refrigeration units.
“Driving down our carbon emissions is one of our top priorities and this is just one of the ways we’re supporting the NHS to achieve their net zero target by 2045, which has wide ranging health benefits for us all, not least around air quality.”
The new trucks have been in operation since last Saturday and will gather real-time performance data which will be uploaded onto an interactive website – the data will then inform future fleet operator buying decisions.
The scheme is a significant forward step fir the government’s ambitious target of ending sales of non-zero emission heavy goods vehicles from 2035.
This new scheme will also go towards the NHS Supply Chain’s ambition of saving £2.4bn by 2023/24, as well their furthers aims to:
- Anchor the business on the needs of the NHS by supporting NHS trusts to deliver safe and excellent patient care.
- Further strengthen the resilience of the supply chain by continuing to invest in key tools and capacity that build resilience and performance.
- Deliver clinically assured, safe products that support improved outcomes for patients and users.
- Support the NHS objective of becoming the world’s first net carbon zero national health system.
- Ensure a high performing workforce and highly efficient organisation.
More information about the new trial is available here.
