CLECAT position paper on Clean Corporate Fleets
CLECAT, the European Association for Forwarding, Transport, Logistics and Customs Services, takes the opportunity to present its views on the upcoming Commission legislative initiative entitled “Clean Corporate Fleets”. Following the public consultation in spring 2024, and the mission letter to Commissioner Tzitzikostas tasking him to “put forward a legislative proposal on clean corporate fleets”, this initiative allows the freight forwarding sector to reflect and provide possible ideas to increase the uptake of zero-emission light- and heavy-duty vehicles, in road logistics.
The freight forwarding sector is committed to ambitious European decarbonisation goals and is willing to actively contribute to the substantial reduction of GHG emissions from its transport and logistics operations. Given that freight forwarders and logistics service providers mostly do not own transport assets, an emission reduction strategy is pursued to engage with many different subcontractors, including road transport operators. There are however outstanding challenges that need to be solved to ensure a fast-paced decarbonisation of road transport, including the effective supply and availability of battery-electric or hydrogen-powered vehicles, the corresponding charging/refuelling infrastructure and the sector's limited financial capacity to undertake the transition towards zero emission vehicles.
CLECAT believes a flexible mechanism to incentivise all zero-emission vehicles should drive innovation while avoiding measures which would damage the competitiveness of the transport and logistics sector. The paper provides recommendations with regards to the development of EU demand-side measures for the road freight sector.