December 20, 2023. CEVA Logistics, ENGIE and SANEF, partners of the European Clean Transport Network Alliance (ECTN), began experimenting with the concept of long-distance road freight transportation with low carbon emissions.
This test, deployed on a route of more than 900 km between Avignon and Lille, aims to demonstrate that the ECTN concept, based on a network of terminals for refueling trucks with low carbon emissions, opens the way to the decarbonization of the long-distance road freight transport, without the need for specific technological innovations.
The concept proposed by the Alliance is inspired by the old “post house”. It involves creating relay stations on the highway network equipped with electric charging points and Bio-CNG refueling pumps for heavy vehicles, where trailers are unhitched and then connected to the tractor truck of the next segment.
The test route between Avignon and Lille is divided into 4 segments: Avignon (Vaucluse) – Lyon (Rhône) – Dijon (Côte-d’Or) – Sommesous (Marne) – Lille (North); each truck will make two one-way trips and back a day between two of these repeater stations.
Starting with 4 Bio-CNG trucks operated by the transport company F.D.E. Transports, the system will be progressively expanded to reach 16 units, 12 of them electric, with the incorporation of new transport partners and chargers. In short, it will allow, five days a week, the return to the north of 8 semi-trailers leaving the Avignon-Marseille basin and the descent in the opposite direction of another 8.
Big names in commerce and industry, such as Logistique Alimentaire Intermarché and Heineken, show their interest in the ECTN concept and participate in the experiment as transporters, entrusting a part of their South/North logistics flows.
