Toyota New Zealand says it has cut a substantial 39% cut in CO2 emissions for a section of its parts operation.
The cuts came from moving freight to its Palmerston North warehouse from Wellington by using rail instead of road transport.
After moving parts imported by sea from Australia onto the new CentrePort rail service CentreRail, they also re-routed Thailand sea freight from Napier to Wellington to connect to the rail service.
The company says it has also reduced the number of trucks on what is a heavily congested traffic route.
Managing director and chief executive, Alistair Davis is leading a Freight Efficiency project the Sustainable Business Council initiated.
In Toyota’s case that has resulted in greater freight efficiency from a value chain guide methodology. The company found – not surprisingly – that transporting vehicles and parts is a significant part of its carbon footprint.
“We were quite exposed to road transport,” says Davis. “We are now looking at alternatives such as making better use of coastal shipping and rail. It’s helped us identify ways we can reduce risks.”
Toyota imports parts primarily from Japan, Thailand and Australia to support the vehicles sold in New Zealand.
“Moving from road to rail has also generated significant cost savings in addition to the environmental benefits” says Dave Rhodes-Robinson, Toyota New Zealand’s parts and logistics operations manager.
On the vehicle side, new vehicles arrive at either Auckland or Christchurch and are then freighted around the country by the Car Distribution Group (CDG) on custom designed transporters. In some cases the CDG has found distribution by coastal shipping is more cost effective, especially when vehicles have to be shifted between the North and South Island.
CDG has undertaken a significant fleet upgrade in the last three years. Now nearly half its fleet meets Euro 5 emission regulations, compared to just 17 percent of its trucks in 2012. At the same time the capacity of many of its trucks has been increased from seven to eight vehicles.
12% more Toyota vehicles are being distributed around New Zealand compared to a year ago, but the CO2 emissions to deliver each unit has been reduced by 3%, largely due to the greater efficiency of the CDG fleet.
With increasing volume and pressures on the ports of Auckland and Lyttleton, Toyota is currently studying landing new vehicles in Wellington to improve the efficiency and timeliness of delivery in the lower North Island, which would also reduce the amount of road freight required.
“We are always looking for improvements in the way we operate in both our vehicle and parts distribution,” says Rhodes-Robinson. “A number of developments are also underway on the parts front to create further efficiencies and cost reduction.”
