Food conglomerate William Jackson Food Group (WJFG) has begun rewarding delivery drivers working under its Abel & Cole business for how efficiently they drive.
Gavin Milligan, the firm’s chief sustainability officer, discussed its fleet management practices at this week’s Clean Energy Summit at Twickenham Stadium, and revealed that the bays of its trucks had been specifically designed for maximum payload.
Unlike other food delivery services like Ocado, which also presented at the event, Abel & Cole operate much like a milk run in that deliveries are made at set times specified by the company and not the customer.
Milligan explained that this allows the company to organise its routes for efficiency and, as a result, operate “ten times as efficiently” as other services.
Abel & Cole has since investigated other ways to improve efficiency within its delivery fleet and after experimenting with alternative fuels, settled on advanced monitoring and management of its vehicles, and more specifically drivers.
Sensors in each van continually monitor its performance, which is then catalogued centrally. Vehicle and driver performance is charted with a league table published each month. Drivers who save the most fuel by driving sensibly are tasked with training underperformers.
Drivers also receive a quarterly bonus based on the amount of fuel they save through sensible driving, incentivising fuel management. Milligan revealed that as a result of these changes Abel & Cole fuel efficiency had increased from 20.5 miles per gallon to 26.5.
Milligan also spoke of WJFG’s stance on renewables, which he said had changed somewhat in the wake of cuts to the feed-in tariff. A rooftop solar array fitted to one of its production centres in Hull had achieved a pay-back period of less than seven years when it was first installed, however Milligan said the company “probably would not have gone ahead” with the install if the returns had been what they currently are.
Instead the company is now looking into anaerobic digestion, using some of the food waste that it cannot use for compost or livestock feed due to farming limitations.
