Volvo Trucks will deliver fully electric heavy-duty trucks to Amazon in Germany by year end. The 20 Volvo FH Electric are expected to drive more than one million road kilometers annually. For Amazon, the trucks will play a key role in electrification of longer distances and heavier loads. Heavy goods... Read more →

Hyundai Motor Company won its first Luminary honor at Red Dot Award: Design Concept 2022 with its Trailer Drone fully autonomous hydrogen mobility concept. (Earlier post.) The Luminary honor is the highest level of recognition accorded at the Red Dot Award: Design Concept, selected from among Red Dot’s ‘Best of... Read more →

BNSF Railway plans to invest more than $1.5 billion to construct a master-planned rail facility in Southern California—the first being developed by a Class 1 railroad. The Barstow International Gateway will be an approximately 4,500-acre new integrated rail facility on the west side of Barstow, consisting of a rail yard,... Read more →

The Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team recently concluded a trial in the use of biofuels in 16 Mercedes Actros Gigaspace race trucks for the final three races of the European season. As part of the drive to further reduce CO2 emissions and achieve verified Net Zero by 2030, the trial was... Read more →

The Electrification Coalition (EC) launched the Electric Freight Consortium (EFC), a forum for collaboration between the EC, private-sector partners and industry leaders representing a broad cross-section of the freight transportation sector that will accelerate freight electrification at scale. The EFC will complement its freight policy and pilot work by creating... Read more →

Werner Enterprises, a premier transportation and logistics provider, has signed a letter of intent to purchase 500 Cummins’ 15-liter hydrogen internal combustion engines upon availability. (Earlier post.) The two companies announced earlier this year that Werner Enterprises plans to validate and integrate Cummins’ 15-liter natural gas and Cummins’ X15H hydrogen... Read more →

Hyliion, a developer of electrified powertrain solutions for Class 8 commercial vehicles (earlier post), has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a new fuel-agnostic generator (KARNO) from GE Additive for its range-extended series-hybrid powertrain. The Hyliion KARNO solution offers a next-generation powertrain option between the CNG/RNG-fueled generator used in... Read more →

FedEx Office, in collaboration with Ford Pro, is piloting 10 Ford E-Transit vans across its FedEx SameDay City network as part of the goal to transition its entire pickup and delivery fleet to zero tailpipe emission vehicles by 2040. FedEx SameDay City is the company’s local shipping option, which offers... Read more →

Amazon has begun deploying its custom electric delivery vehicles from Rivian for package delivery, with the electric vehicles hitting the road in Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Kansas City, Nashville, Phoenix, San Diego, Seattle, and St. Louis, among other cities. This rollout is just the beginning of what is expected to be... Read more →

Isuzu Motors Limited, DENSO Corporation, Toyota Motor Corporation, Hino Motors, Ltd., and Commercial Japan Partnership Technologies Corporation (CJPT) have started planning and foundational research on hydrogen engines for heavy-duty commercial vehicles with the aim of further utilizing internal combustion engines as one option to achieve carbon neutrality. On the road... Read more →

India-based global tire-maker Apollo Tyres, which markets its products under the global brands Apollo and Vredestein, will launch its first dedicated micro-mobility tire, the Vredestein Cargo. Developed specifically for electrically assisted cargo bikes used for urban deliveries, the new tire will make its debut at Eurobike 2022 in Frankfurt, Germany... Read more →

Einride, a freight technology company providing digital, electric and autonomous shipping, has received approval from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to operate its Autonomous Electric Transport (AET) vehicles on US public roads. With this approval, Einride will conduct a public road pilot to support operational flows for customer... Read more →

Scania is introducing complete BEV-based solutions for regional long-haul. The new generation, available with R or S sleeper cabs, is part of a complete solution. With 624 kWh of batteries installed, Scania provides the means for a major shift regarding electric trucks and their operability in regional long-haul operations. Scania-45-R-BEV... Read more →

Uber Freight and Waymo Via announced a long-term strategic partnership to connect their technologies and deploy autonomous trucks at scale on the Uber Freight network. This partnership brings together the power of Waymo’s autonomous driving technology with the scale of Uber Freight’s network and leading marketplace technology, unlocking a roadmap... Read more →

UK-based Clean Air Power has demonstrated a Freightliner Class 66 locomotive running on hydrogen to reduce its carbon emission output. Clean Air Power achieved this by fitting the Class 66 with its precision injection technology, allowing the two-stroke diesel locomotive to run on a combination of diesel, biogas and hydrogen.... Read more →

NFI Industries—a leading third-party supply chain solutions provider—is increasing its investment in electromobility solutions with its latest order of 60 Volvo VNR Electric trucks. The battery-electric freight trucks will be deployed in NFI’s Ontario, California fleet throughout 2022 and 2023, in support of its goal of operating the first 100%... Read more →

Cummins and Daimler Truck North America (DTNA), the largest heavy-duty truck manufacturer in North America, are collaborating to upfit and validate Freightliner Class 8 Cascadia trucks with a Cummins hydrogen fuel cell powertrain for use in North America. Freightliner will leverage Cummins’ fourth-generation fuel cell powertrain, which provides improved power... Read more →

Aurora Innovation Covenant Logistics Group are collaborating to explore ways t#o optimize Covenant’s long-haul operations with Aurora’s autonomous trucking product. The two companies will explore the integration and deployment of Aurora Horizon within Covenant’s operations. Part of Covenant’s diversified services is long-haul trucking, making the benefits of autonomous technology in... Read more →

Fontaine Modification is expanding its electrification integration services to include refrigerated trailers through a strategic alliance with electric transport refrigeration unit (eTRU) innovator eNow, Inc. Fontaine will offer application engineering, integration, and installation of eNow’s proprietary renewable Rayfrigeration eTRU technology on refrigerated trailers from all manufacturers. The system can be... Read more →

Volvo Autonomous Solutions (VAS), a Volvo Group company, will offer a new hub-to-hub autonomous transport solution, designed to serve four main customer segments: shippers; carriers; logistics service providers; and freight brokers. Each solution will be configured to suit the business needs of the specific segments while addressing the growing demand... Read more →

Aurora Innovation and Werner Enterprises, a premier transportation and logistics provider, announced a collaboration and commercial pilot to test and deploy safely autonomous trucks on one of the most commercially active and critical stretches of highway in the US. Starting this week, Aurora Driver-powered trucks are hauling loads between Fort... Read more →

Volvo Trucks in North America has won an order for 110 Volvo VNR Electric trucks from the global logistics company Maersk. The deal adds to a previous order of 16 vehicles of the same model and marks the single largest commercial order to date for Volvo’s electric trucks. The order,... Read more →

A.P. Moller – Maersk is temporarily suspending new Maersk bookings within ocean, air and intercontinental rail to and from Russia, with the exception of foodstuffs, medical and humanitarian supplies (bar dual-use items). The suspension began 1 March and covers all Russian gateway ports. Maersk will announce further details as it... Read more →

Toyota Motor Europe (TME) has started transporting new cars by cross-channel rail services between its Valenciennes Vehicle Logistics hub in France and Toton (UK). This launch signals the first phase of its Pan-European plan to move a larger share of vehicles by rail freight in line with its ambition to... Read more →

DHL Global Forwarding, the air and ocean freight specialist of Deutsche Post DHL Group, has signed an agreement with Air France KLM Martinair Cargo (AFKLMP) for the purchase of 33 million liters of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The three-year cooperation represents one of the most significant SAF purchases in the... Read more →

In a recent analysis, Fraunhofer ISI concludes that battery-electric drives will become established in heavy-duty applications in the commercial vehicle sector and that fuel cells will remain a niche application. The decisive factor for the switch to battery-electric vehicles is the energy cost advantage compared to hydrogen and diesel. A... Read more →

Elroy Air, a company developing the first end-to-end autonomous vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aerial cargo system, unveiled its pre-production Chaparral aircraft. The Chaparral can autonomously pick up 300-500 lbs of cargo and deliver it by air up to 300 miles, a capability that pushes beyond the limited payload capabilities... Read more →

Parallel Systems, a company founded by former SpaceX engineers to reimagine the railroad system, has raised $49.55 million in Series A funds to build autonomous battery-electric rail vehicles that move freight. The round is led by Anthos Capital, and includes investments from Congruent Ventures, Riot Ventures, Embark Ventures, and others.... Read more →

The California Energy Commission (CEC) awarded $13 million to the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and CALSTART to jump start California’s high-power charging infrastructure for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. The two organizations will lead a first-of-its-kind collaboration to launch the country’s first zero-emission, freight-charging corridor network. The multi-phase project, Research... Read more →

J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc., one of the largest supply chain solutions providers in North America, announced a long-term, strategic alliance with Waymo Via that will advance efforts to integrate commercial autonomous driving technology in transportation and logistics, with ultimate plans to complete fully autonomous transport in Texas in the... Read more →

Nikola Corporation announced a collaboration with Saia LTL Freight, a less-than-truckload (LTL) company, to accelerate the implementation of heavy-duty electric transportation trucks. This collaboration includes a Letter of Intent (LOI) to purchase or lease 100 Nikola Tre heavy-duty battery electric vehicles (BEVs) following the satisfactory completion of a demonstration program.... Read more →

Starting immediately, Deutsche Post is offsetting any unavoidable CO2 emissions due to mail transport with investments in internationally recognized and certified climate protection projects at no extra charge. For the last ten years, DHL has transported all parcels for private customers with its climate-friendly “GoGreen” service. Up until now, the... Read more →

The largest asset-based transportation company in Europe, Girteka Logistics, was one of the first road freight transport companies to be given the Green Carrier Certificate by one of its partners, DHL. (Earlier post.) The certificate was established by the German-based logistics company to certify its subcontractors, increasing the transparency behind... Read more →

sennder, Europe’s leading digital road freight forwarder and Cabot Corporation, a leading global specialty chemicals and performance materials company, transported one of Europe’s first zero-emission cross-border heavy duty loads. In a pilot electric trucking project, sennder transported 17+ tonnes of product for Cabot from the port of Rotterdam to Antwerp,... Read more →

Deutsche Post DHL Group is introducing a global DHL Green Carrier Certification to reward road transport subcontractors for their efforts to become more sustainable. As part of its sustainability roadmap, Deutsche Post DHL Group aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to below 29 million tons by 2030 and net-zero by... Read more →

In June 2021, DHL Freight started piloting a Bio-LNG solution (Bio-Liquefied Natural Gas from sustainable biomass) with Shell on three haulier trucks to reduce CO2 emissions in road freight transport for DHL’s customer Grundfos. In the first five months, the volume of Bio-LNG lifted has reduced 87 tons of CO2... Read more →

A collaboration between Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and the University of Washington’s Urban Freight Lab has developed a prototype webapp that combines smart sensors and machine learning to predict parking space availability. The prototype is ready for initial testing to help commercial delivery drivers find open spaces without expending... Read more →

IKEA Canada has partnered with technology-enabled logistics and last-mile delivery provider, Second Closet, which will begin integrating zero-emission trucks into its fleet for IKEA home deliveries in several markets across Canada. Second Closet has submitted a purchase order to Lion Electric (Lion), a manufacturer of all-electric medium and heavy-duty urban... Read more →

The European innovation project Flagships will deploy the world’s first commercial cargo transport vessel operating on hydrogen, plying the river Seine in Paris. Commercial operations are set to commence in 2021. The hydrogen cargo transport vessel will be owned by French inland shipowner Compagnie Fluvial de Transport (CFT), a subsidiary... Read more →

Fluid Truck has ordered 40 additional electric delivery trucks from Lightning eMotors for its New York City fleet. These vehicles will be utilized by XPO Logistics and NAL Group in their support of IKEA Retail US last-mile delivery efforts. The electric trucks will service all five boroughs, IKEA said. Ten... Read more →

Purolator is taking another step in greening its fleet with the arrival of fully electric curbside-delivery trucks in Vancouver—the first to be launched nationally by a Canadian courier company. The new 18-foot electric delivery trucks and electric–cargo bikes (e-bikes) expand Purolator’s fleet of eco-friendly vehicles already in use on the... Read more →

Volvo Group’s subsidiary Renault Trucks is pursuing its investment in electric mobility. From 2023, an all-electric Renault Trucks offer will be available for each segment, namely distribution, construction and long distance. To support these developments and be able to offer a complete and competitive Renault Trucks range on the market,... Read more →

DHL Freight, one of the leading road freight providers in Europe, and Volvo Trucks have partnered to speed up the introduction of heavy-duty electric trucks to be used for regional transport in Europe. DHL Freight and Volvo Trucks have initiated a project focusing on electric longer distance heavy transports. So... Read more →

Mining major Rio Tinto has secured a new commercial freight shipping service connecting Western Australia’s Pilbara region to the major international shipping hub of Singapore. Rio Tinto owns a world-class, integrated network of 16 iron ore mines in the Pilbara region. The vessel capacity of the freight service will be... Read more →

Hyperloop technology, initially proposed by Elon Musk in 2013 as an innovative means for intermediate-range or intercity travel, is now being developed by several companies. Hyperloop systems could be used for both passenger and freight transportation with the goals of time-saving, convenience, quality of service and, in some cases, increased... Read more →

Velodyne Lidar, Inc. and Beijing Trunk Technology Co., Ltd. (Trunk.Tech) will collaborate in developing next-generation autonomous heavy trucks and to accelerate commercialization of driverless trucks in China’s logistics market. Velodyne and Trunk.Tech will cooperate on lidar-enabled products that meet the demanding requirements of high-speed transportation logistics. These solutions will strengthen... Read more →

Volvo Group Venture Capital AB has invested in Flock Freight, a technology company based in Solana Beach, California, that pools shipments to fill unused trailer space. The company uses algorithms to match multiple LTL (less than a truckload) shipments into one shared truckload that eliminates all terminals and hubs, improving... Read more →