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Jointly investing in sustainable kilometres


Van den Bosch is fully committed to sustainability. One of the steps it is taking in this respect is to use HVO 100, in other words hydrotreated vegetable oil, as an alternative to fossil diesel in road transport. With a view to making this process as efficient and transparent as possible, we are developing a new tool that will allow us to calculate automatically how much HVO is needed per transport - as well as the associated costs, CO₂ savings and certification.

“We’ve been using HVO 100 on a daily basis within certain transport flows for a major customer in the Netherlands since 2022,” explains Marieke van Schijndel, commercial manager at Van den Bosch. “This represents around a hundred shipments a month. Conversations with customers have revealed that, while there’s significant interest in HVO 100, the costs and administration aspects are the main obstacles.”

In response to this, Van den Bosch has made it possible to enter the number of kilometres to be driven using HVO when drafting a quotation in its own Customer Order Management (COM) system. COM then uses this data to calculate automatically how many litres of HVO are needed. The system also takes account of the monthly price difference between conventional diesel and HVO. As with the diesel clause, the HVO surcharge is adjusted monthly, depending on current fuel prices. Given that HVO and diesel do not always evolve in sync, this monthly adjustment ensures that customers always pay a fair and accurate price.

Transparency

“Transparency also plays a key role,” Van Schijndel explains. “There’s a reluctance to switch to biofuel due to a lack of understanding of the financial and environmental benefits. It’s difficult to pass on costs correctly, especially in a logistics network where trucks aren’t exclusively used for one particular customer. We've therefore been working on a system that automatically calculates how much HVO 100 has been used for a specific customer, and how the cost can be properly charged.” As Frank van Kroonenburg, also commercial manager at Van den Bosch, adds, “Comparing data on kilometres driven and litres refuelled allows us to establish whether our HVO consumption is in line with demand from customers and then make adjustments in good time and decide, for example, whether we need to use more HVO, or run additional vehicles on HVO. We may even discover that we’re unnecessarily using too much. These insights help us keep a grip on consumption, costs and sustainability.”

Certification

“Another important part of our HVO strategy is issuing certificates to customers," Van Kroonenburg continues. “A certificate shows the customer the savings that have been made on the shipments carried out so that compensation can be claimed for the CO2 emissions saved. In principle, this means that using HVO is an easy way of achieving immediate sustainability. To become more sustainable you often need to invest first but, in a manner of speaking, you could switch to HVO 100 tomorrow.”

“This simplifies the administration side of things and lowers the threshold for use,” adds Van Schijndel. “We’re also trying to provide an insight into the alternatives, so that you know what the emissions are if you choose the intermodal variant and what the difference is if you opt for HVO. This approach helps increase awareness and also gives the customer a choice.” As Van Kroonenburg concludes, “We’ve noticed that customers are still cautious about HVO because of the higher costs, but we’re ready for it. The tools have been developed and tested. It’s now up to the customer to make the move to sustainable logistics.”

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