New figures show logistics firms talk the talk on green initiatives and AI but fail to walk the walk
New figures reveal that more transportation & storage sector businesses are ‘very concerned’ about the impact of climate change than any other sector. However, many have not taken steps towards cutting emissions and are lagging far behind in vital AI technological investment, says the home delivery expert Parcelhero.
New figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show more transportation & storage sector companies (16.1%) said they were ‘very concerned’ about the impact of climate change than any other business sector. However, the home delivery expert Parcelhero says the results also reveal many businesses are not transforming that concern into action. That will also have a knock-on effect on the carbon footprint of retailers using their services.
Parcelhero’s head of consumer research, David Jinks MILT, says: “Encouragingly, more transportation & storage companies have a net zero emissions target than any other sector (8%). However, when it comes to putting targets into practice, the results show transportation companies have introduced fewer green initiatives than most other sectors. In fact, compared to similar business sectors such as manufacturing and retail, transport companies have taken fewer steps to electrify their fleets (7%), adjust heating systems (16.8%), install smart meters (10.8%) or introduce renewable energy sources (2.1%).
“Logistics companies are also falling behind in the adoption of AI. Looking across all sectors, around 1 in 7 (14%) of businesses reported that they are currently using some form of artificial intelligence technology, an increase from 10% in late December 2023. Concerningly, however, fewer transportation companies are using AI technologies than any other business sector (91.3% of transportation & storage firms don’t use AI at all).
“While a significant 31.1% of retail companies are using AI to provide or personalise their products and services to customers, the number of transportation companies using AI for their customer services or as a way of gaining new customers was so small it failed to register as a result in the survey. Retailers of all sizes want to see smarter and more informative post-sale logistics and final mile communications with customers but, currently, their transport partners are lagging behind in this area.
“That situation doesn’t look like it’s getting better any time soon. Fewer transport companies are planning to authorise capital expenditure to reach new customers than any other sector except construction, real estate and support services. Crucially, transport & storage sector companies are the most likely to say cost is the reason for not adopting new tech such as AI (11.5%).
“The figures highlight just how far transport companies are lagging behind similar sectors. For example, 16.8% of manufacturers have developed their own AI projects and 24.5% are using external or SaaS software. Similarly, 5.5% of retailers have developed their own AI projects and 27% have bought off-the-shelf or SaaS programs. In comparison, the amount of transport companies adopting these technologies, either in-house or externally, was again so small it didn’t register. Retailers will be anxious to ensure that their post-sales service and communications, which are often in the hands of their delivery partners, don’t fall significantly short of their overall customer experience.
