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With climate change becoming more real and obvious, the realisation of the need to ‘go green' is now becoming far more mainstream. All the major political parties have ‘green agendas' and each jostle to convince the public that they are more environmentally aware than the others.
Green issues are therefore, possibly unsurprisingly, also having an impact on the freight forwarding industry. Indeed, as a recent report published by the Scottish Parliament's Local Government and Transport Committee shows, making freight forwarding more environmentally friendly is a priority.
The report suggested that the current state of the way in which freight is transported in Scotland leaves a lot to be desired from a ‘green' perspective. Road transportation is used in around 70% of all forms of freight transportation. Although forwarding freight by road is likely to continue to be the preferred method of transport, the report recommended that some changes should be made.
In particular, the committee wanted to try and encourage a shift from road to rail freight forwarding. In addition, where it was not possible to move to rail, the report contained suggestions of ways to alleviate the environmental impact of road transportation. For example, one recommendation was to try to reduce congestion by adding non-car lanes on major roads.
Another option presented by the committee was to allow freight companies using trucks on forest roads to use red diesel. Red diesel is a type of fuel that is used in domestic heating systems and also in refrigeration and agricultural and equipment. Compared to ordinary diesel which carries a duty of 47.1p, red diesel has a duty of only 6.44p per litre.