In a project involving no fewer than 22 supply chain technology companies, Walmart is in the midst of testing the Wal-Mart Advanced Vehicle Experience concept truck (WAVE), with the long-term hope of slashing its logistical costs and reducing its carbon footprint, latimes.com reports.
Among the most prominent of these is the Capstone Turbine Corporation, whose president and CEO, Darren R. Jamison, says that Wal-Mart is thinking of the medium- and long-term: he says they are considering where they “could be five years or ten years from now,” as opposed to a year’s time, for example.
The investment in next-generation freight technology is demonstrative of the fact that Walmart wishes to be at the cutting edge of the transportation of products – both US-made and imported – across the America.
The Los Angeles Times, to illustrate the concerns of the American logistical industry, quotes Sean McNally, a spokesperson for a number of American trucking associations, as saying, "Fuel is usually our first- or second-largest expense, along with labour costs,” and for this reason "reducing fuel expenditures would be a huge benefit to trucking and to the economy."
The WAVE concept vehicle is powered partially by an electric motor and new microturbine technology, which, Wal-Mart estimates, will be able to reduce fuel-use by 55 per cent over long trips, and by 241 per cent over less lengthy journeys.
© 2015 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Peter Donnelly. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
