The government must provide the infrastructure that the logistics sector needs to deliver for the future, according to the Shadow Minister for Business and Industrial Strategy.
Speaking earlier this week (11 July) at Logistics UK’s Next Generation Van conference, Bill Esterson MP shared his views on industry’s transition to Electric Vehicles (EVs) and the challenges business are currently facing with costs and infrastructure accessibility.
The logistics industry is key to the UK’s economic survival, employing 2.7m people and contributing £163 billion to the UK economy.
Labour’s Industrial Strategy will create stability for logistics businesses and ensure the UK is self-sufficient in cheap, renewable electricity.
Labour will ensure that charging infrastructure is widely available, that depots can connect to the grid and that incentives are available so that it makes sense to transition to electric. We will be partners with industry to develop and implement the plans needed to meet the challenge of decarbonisation.
Shadow Business and Industry Minister, Bill Esterson
Van operators and businesses are keen to decarbonise and make a smooth transition to EVs but continue to face barriers with significant costs for increasing adequate power supplies and installing the required charging infrastructure at their depots. They also need to have confidence that the public chargepoint network will be able to accommodate their electric vehicles.
Bays at public electric vehicle charging points are often too small to accommodate commercial vehicles, or are unavailable because they are in use or are broken. The pace of the roll out of suitable public charging infrastructure must be accelerated and appropriate fiscal measure are put in place to support our industry in meeting decarbonise deadlines to ensure our sector can continue to deliver all that the economy requires.
It is vital that industry and government work together to ensure a greener transition to EVs, creating prosperity and lowers costs in the process, to enable logistics business to invest in EVs and infrastructure with confidence.
Denise Beedell, Senior Policy Manager, at Logistics UK
