Reducing the impact of shipments: how to implement sustainable logistics

Online commerce is growing continuously, which means that thousands of orders are delivered every day in every city through various transport companies.

Online commerce is growing continuously, which means that thousands of orders are delivered every day in every city through various transport companies.

In other words, means that there is a large number of vehicles circulating through cities during the day, something unsustainable and with a major environmental impact.

Use of eco-friendly vehicles

One of the measures that reduce the negative impact of shipments is the use of eco-friendly vehicles in what is known as the last mile, that is, the journey from the local transport company to the customer.

At this stage, eco-friendly vehicles can be used, such as electric vans that, although not as useful for longer distances, make more sense for short distances, where they can be used more efficiently.

Reducing the use of cardboard

It is common to find a small package inside a large cardboard box, with the entire interior filled with packing material.

If this amount of cardboard is not recycled, it results in excessive use, with all that this implies. To avoid this, companies should choose cardboard boxes of a size appropriate to the package that is going to be shipped and replace them with paper whenever possible, that is, when the item to be protected is not considered fragile.

Although cardboard is fully recyclable, when it comes to reducing environmental impact there is nothing better than stopping using what is not necessary.

Implementing responsible shipments

In the age of immediacy, most people want to receive their online orders almost on the same day they are placed. At the same time, they are also aware that this is not the most suitable for the environment and are willing not to receive orders on the same day if that means helping the environment.

This way, customers can be given the choice of how they want to receive what they bought, or even the option to pick up the order in person at a collection point such as a Ponto Pack.

NON-home deliveries

Partly due to environmental concerns and especially to make things easier for customers and online commerce, what is known as NON-home delivery has emerged.

Courier companies deliver packages to specific points such as photocopy centers, furniture stores, computer shops or stationery stores, known as Ponto Pack.

Thus, a single professional delivers dozens of packages at the same time, which avoids having to move around the city from home to home, saving fuel and avoiding the emission of a large amount of CO₂ into the atmosphere.

That is what we do at InPost: we deliver more packages in fewer stops, while postal services that carry out door-to-door deliveries often need more than a week to complete all deliveries. Thus, our vehicles never travel empty and make the most of every trip they have to make.