Athlone company is driving change with vegetable oil!

One of the Athlone's largest employers is turning to a form of treated vegetable oil to power its extensive transport fleet.

DPD Ireland, based in Athlone Business Park on the Dublin Road, is deploying Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) as a replacement for diesel in its heavy goods vehicles as part of an ambitious drive to decarbonise its Irish fleet by 2030.

The parcel delivery company, who are leading the charge towards sustainable deliveries, says their entire fleet will be fuelled by HVO by the first quarter of next year. At full capacity, they expect to avoid 16 tons of carbon equivalent per day versus fully diesel-powered vehicles.

HVO is a 100% renewable and fossil-free fuel that is made by processing waste vegetable oils and animal fats using a specialist method of hydrotreatment. The use of HVO fuel offers up to 90% less well-to-wheel emissions than diesel.

DPD Ireland Chief Executive Des Travers explains that the company began looking at alternative fuel options for its line-haul fleet after difficulty sourcing electric heavy goods vehicles.

“We’ve had HVO on our radar for several years. It has become imperative for our business to reduce our emissions which is why we are taking action. We are on a journey to become the most sustainable parcel delivery company in Ireland, and this is just the next step for us. We will continue to overcome the challenges as we 100% decarbonise our business.

“At full capacity, the company will be avoiding 16 tons of CO2 equivalent per day versus a fully diesel operation. This is due to the reduced well-to-wheel emissions that HVO offers,” he commented, adding that DPD Ireland recently achieved the milestone of 1 million sustainable deliveries in August of this year.

The Athlone-based company is in the process of switching all its domestic linehaul routes to 100% HVO in a bid to slash its linehaul emissions by 87% (versus 2020). These line-haul routes carry parcels between DPD Ireland’s central sorting hub in Athlone and its 35 depots around Ireland. This follows a successful trial of the biofuel which ran from June to September 2022.

Powering all domestic linehaul routes with this sustainable biofuel, DPD expects to reduce its emissions by over 4,350 tons CO2 per year versus a conventional diesel operation. This is the equivalent of taking 937 cars off the road for a year.

HVO is not available yet at commercial pumps, which is why DPD Ireland is installing dedicated HVO storage tanks on site at its central sorting hub in Athlone. Once complete, the company will be able to supply 100% of its domestic linehaul routes on renewable HVO.

In addition, the firm is currently delivering more than 4,000 parcels per day by electric van and expects delivery of 205 new all-electric Ford eTransits, more than double the target amount announced last year. This will bring the electric fleet to 258, nearly 20% of its total fleet, by the middle of next year.

Meanwhile, James Atkinson, Sustainability Programme Manager emphasised the importance of tracking the new biofuel.

“In order to validate our emissions savings, we are using a smart pump system. The HVO dispensed at the pump is automatically recorded to track our total usage. The vehicles’ odometer is tracked when the fuel is dispensed, and a digital record is kept that correlates fuel used with kilometres driven.

“By tracking the vehicle type, we can more accurately calculate the emissions avoided. This is a step up in our emissions tracking and enables better reporting," he said.

Last year, DPD Ireland announced a further €2 million investment to decarbonise its Irish fleet with the addition of 100 new electric vehicles by the end of 2022. The company has already invested €3.2 million since 2019 in electric vans and infrastructure.

DPD Ireland is part of the DPD Group, the second largest international parcel delivery network in Europe. The group delivers 7.5 million parcels each day – 1.9 billion parcels per year.