Dive Brief:
- Schneider National hauled Frito-Lay North America’s first third-party EV shipment, helping the snack giant reduce its emissions as it aims for net-zero by 2040, the companies announced Thursday.
- The carrier’s Freightliner eCascadias will initially handle intermodal inbound and outbound dray moves between the Southern California ports and Frito-Lay’s Rancho Cucamonga distribution center.
- The shift to EV trucks will remove 70% of emissions this year, versus carrying the same shipments on diesel trucks, according to the companies.
Dive Insight:
Carriers are increasingly offering EV hauls to assist freight customers in achieving zero-emissions goals.
Schneider now offers cleaner transportation in almost 100 battery-electric trucks, nearly twice the number the company added in Southern California in September 2021. The fleet was subsidized by the Joint Electric Truck Scaling Initiative, sponsored by the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the California Air Resources Board and the California Energy Commission.
The carrier’s carbon footprint reduction plan first focuses on intermodal and drayage. Initially deploying the EV trucks at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach makes sense, given the CARB requirement that all new trucks hauling cargo at the ports be zero-emission by 2024.
“We're thrilled to offer a cleaner mode of freight transportation to valued customers like Frito-Lay, who share our goal of operating in ways that are environmentally responsible," Rob Reich, Schneider executive vice president and chief administrative officer, said in a statement. "For decades, we have been committed to improving sustainability at Schneider, and we're proud to now be able to positively impact our customers' operations as well.”
Frito-Lay is the first to contract transport using Schneider's electric truck fleet. The snack company’s third-party transportation makes up about 20% of PepsiCo’s emissions footprint, the company said.
Frito-Lay is also upgrading its in-house fleet, shifting a manufacturing facility in Modesto, California — one of its largest — to all alternative fuel vehicles. It introduced 40 fully electric, zero-emissions route trucks in Texas last year.
David Allen, vice president and chief sustainability officer of PepsiCo Foods North America, said the milestone with Schneider shows the necessity of collaborating across industries in building more sustainable food supply chains and reach net-zero by 2040.
"As a company with massive scale, Frito-Lay looks for opportunities to create positive change – but we can't do it alone,” Allen said in a statement. “By working with Schneider, we are taking an important step forward in our efforts to reduce value chain emissions and move our snack products in a more sustainable way."
EV trucking initiatives like these likely will continue to accelerate, as the Environmental Protection Agency this month granted California authority to set rules phasing out diesel trucks altogether.
