Starting today, Collect&Go will be the first Belgian retailer to deliver orders using electric delivery vehicles. Colruyt Group's online grocery service is gradually replacing all CNG vehicles from its fleet with electric vehicles. “In the long run, we want everything to be fully electric,” Tom Malfroid, Logistics Manager at Collect&Go comments. This new step must ensure that all Colruyt Group transport is made emission-free by 2035. The electric delivery vans are deployed in Brussels, Antwerp, and the region in between these cities.
More orders with green transport
The new vans (Ford E-Transit) have a larger volume than our CNG vans. "That means we can serve more customers while using climate-friendly vehicles," Tom Malfroid explains. “Increasing efficiency is ingrained in our group, as is looking for green solutions. By using electric vans, we kill two birds with one stone.”
Eventually, the aim is to also replace the remaining CNG vehicles with electric vehicles. Tom Malfroid: “CNG was the first step towards greening our fleet, but in the long run, we want everything to be fully electric. That’s why we’ve built a completely new charging plaza at our base in Londerzeel, and we also have some fast chargers to make the delivery vans roadworthy again in 20-30 minutes between trips.”
Emission-free by 2035
Colruyt Group is a pioneer of zero-emission transport: the company aims to make all transport by its own drivers, suppliers, and transport partners emission-free by 2035. For its own fleet, the company is now fully focussing on battery-electric and hydrogen-electric vehicles that run emission-free. Its electric delivery vans aren’t the only contribution Collect&Go is making. In April, Collect&Go introduced an electric cargo bike at its collection point in Ghent. The private delivery drivers or 'Drivers' the grocery service relies on can use the cargo bike free of charge to deliver groceries to customers in their neighbourhood. The cargo bike was provided by Bike Republic, Colruyt Group's bicycle specialist. “For Collect&Go, we also want the last mile, i.e. the last few kilometres to the customer, to be travelled as sustainably as possible,” Tom Malfroid concludes.
