DHL sees zonal pricing as a ‘meaningful risk’ to electrified delivery infrastructure
DHL UK and Ireland has warned government that zonal electricity pricing would risk costlier deliveries, undermining the UK’s net-zero and growth ambitions.
Pricier electricity in the south and Midlands than elsewhere would mean extra cost pressures on deliveries as the transport and logistics industry goes green with EVs. This is because electric vans and trucks will mostly need to use charging infrastructure in the Midlands or southern England, reflecting concentrations of population and industry, as well as road delivery routes, the same areas where diesel refuelling is most often needed now.
A spokesperson for DHL UK and Ireland said:
“As we continue to decarbonise the UK’s transport and logistics industry, we see a meaningful risk that zonal pricing could significantly impede efforts to build and scale up a cost-effective charging infrastructure for electrified delivery vehicles.
A policy that ultimately increases the costs of storing and moving goods around the more densely populated areas with a higher concentration of industrial activity would have a detrimental effect on the UK’s net-zero and growth ambitions.”