Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP), the largest independent bottler of Coca-Cola globally, is making the switch from road to rail to distribute its soft drinks between its manufacturing sites and third-party warehouse locations across London and Yorkshire.
The change will see 18,000 loads of CCEP’s products – some 2.5million cans and bottles of some of the world’s most popular soft drinks – delivered by rail per day, reducing carbon emissions by nearly 50%. This is a significant step towards the business’ ambition of reaching net zero by 2040.
The switch will save a total of almost 4 million road miles per year and remove a total of 15,000 lorry journeys from some of the UK’s busiest roads. When running at full capacity 31% of CCEP’s total product volume destined for Yorkshire will now be distributed via rail.
Let us hope others follow this lead and make more use of rail freight to reduce road congestion and reduce emissions.