The IRU Brussels team recently visited one of Amazon’s largest fulfillment centres in Europe to better understand the company’s community-based decarbonisation and driver shortage strategies.
Commenting on their visit to Amazon’s fulfillment centre in Mönchengladbach, Germany, Raluca Marian, IRU’s EU Director of Advocacy, said, “We wanted to see firsthand how Amazon, one of our corporate members, is implementing its sustainability objectives. We were pleased to see in practice concrete plans to scale up investments in electric heavy-duty vehicles.”
The Amazon team highlighted that their transport network remains one of the most central aspects of their decarbonisation plan. They also touched on specific issues relating to the enabling conditions necessary, such as grid capacity and network availability, to plan and upscale zero-emission vehicles.
“While an EU-wide grid plan was unveiled last November, there are serious concerns that it might not be enough to ensure that the enabling conditions needed for the decarbonisation of the road transport sector to materialise at the rate and level envisioned by the EU. We learnt that our concerns regarding the EU’s grid capacity are shared by Amazon, who has experienced practical difficulties. We hope that the new EU legislators will bring a new, harmonised EU approach to the necessary grid upgrades,” said Raluca Marian.
Amazon has created an open-source tool, CHALET (Charging Locations for Electric Trucks), to help the industry, governments, electricity network operators, and local authorities to identify priority locations for truck charging infrastructure across Europe. The tool is publicly available and interested users can find the open-source code in GitHub, under the repository name “chalet-charging-location-for-electric-trucks”.
New truck driver waiting facility
With the support of the local community and authorities, Amazon has also recently inaugurated a dedicated parking and waiting area near its fulfillment centre for drivers waiting for their trucks to be loaded/unloaded or for their upcoming appointments.
The IRU team was able to visit the facilities and the efforts being made to make drivers’ waiting and rest times more comfortable. The waiting area is equipped with sanitary facilities, showers and a common resting area with a microwave and coffee machine.
Europe is suffering from a chronic shortage of professional truck drivers. Without significant action, Europe is projected to have 745,000 unfilled truck driver positions (17% of total positions) by 2028.
Improving drivers’ working conditions, and by extension the attractiveness of the profession, is at the heart of Amazon’s efforts to tackle driver shortages. While the industry is doing its part, governments and authorities also need to accelerate their efforts to enhance working conditions and access to the profession.
Interested in seeing all this for yourself? Amazon offers free visits to its fulfillment centres to the public!