Frozen food retailers, Iceland is to trial electric trucks for its home deliveries, as part of a £38m initiative funded by the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) and Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency.
Iceland will deploy a Paneltex all-electric truck which will be fitted with Sunamp’s cold storage technology, and will make use of Route Monkey's journey planning technology.
The fourth consortium member, the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership (LowCVP) will analyse the project's results.
For this trial, Route Monkey’s technology will include the capabilities to react to traffic congestion, factor in weather conditions, and – in case of emergency - schedule a top-up charge of the batteries and cold storage Heat Batteries at the nearest available charging point.
Trakm8 will provide real-time data including monitoring the ambient temperature and battery state of charge. Route Monkey’s algorithms are self-learning, meaning they will evolve and further improve their problem-solving abilities, as the trial progresses.
The project is looking for more fleets to participate in the trials. Anyone interested should contact 01875 610001.