Waitrose & Partners and John Lewis have announced plans to introduce electric vans to its delivery fleet.
The initiative will help the company to achieve its goal to eliminate the use of fossil fuels across its transport operations by 2030.
The retailer will use two types of electric vehicles for its Waitrose.com food deliveries and smaller John Lewis deliveries.
The trial of the vehicles is scheduled to commence early next year, the company added.
The electric delivery vehicles are expected to cut CO2 emissions by 20,000 tonnes annually, which is equivalent to the carbon footprint of 2,500 UK households.
‘An Ideal Solution’
Partner and general manager of central transport at John Lewis Partnership, Justin Laney, said, “Our new electric vans are an ideal solution for home deliveries; the innovative design means they're more efficient, but also respectful to the environment and the growing number of neighbourhoods in which we deliver.
"As our online services rapidly expand, we're working hard to meet our goal of operating a zero fossil fuel fleet in the next ten years."
Waitrose has added more than 100,000 customer order slots per week in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It has also reserved at least 25% of these slots on Waitrose.com for the vulnerable, elderly and people on the government’s lists.
The company delivers to nearly 90% of postcodes across the UK through its store network and two fulfilment centres in London.
© 2020 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Dayeeta Das. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
