Albert Heijn will now stock its supermarkets in Amsterdam with two electric trucks.
The chain writes this in a press release. The trucks - which were developed and tested in cooperation with Simon Loos, Ginaf and the municipality of Amsterdam - will drive back and forth between the distribution centre in Zaandam and the inner-city branches five to six times a day.
The e-trucks come from the stable of manufacturer Ginaf. One of the challenges during development was to find a compromise between flexibility and range on the one hand, and payload capacity on the other. The e-trucks now have a load capacity comparable to diesel trucks. The batteries are recharged while the trucks are being loaded at the distribution centre. This allows the trucks to be used almost continuously. The trucks do have a different appearance: one of the trucks features an Albert Heijn logo, while the other wears Simon Loos' colours. Albert Heijn's logistics partner will take delivery of the trucks and will supply the stores in the centre.
It is not the first step Albert Heijn is taking in making its logistics more sustainable. For instance, it will deliver groceries ordered online in the centre of Amsterdam by bicycle. The delivery driver picks up the groceries on the outskirts of the city and then makes his rounds in the city centre. In addition, the supermarket chain is exploring the possibilities of driving on Bio-LNG. Now it mainly runs on liquefied natural gas (LNG). The supermarket chain expects widespread adoption of electric propulsion to be a few years away. For the time being, therefore, it sees the e-trucks as an addition to its current fleet. "There are hardly any electric trucks in this weight class at the moment. We will now mainly learn and experience how provisioning with e-trucks works."
Editorial LogistiekProfs
