On the Road with Climate Friendly Rapeseed Oil

"By using vegetable oil vehicles to transport items as environmentally friendly as possible we are continuing to put our environmental guidelines into practice", said Monika Wulf-Mathies, head of Corporate Public Policy and Sustainability at Deutsche Post World Net. "The vehicles are nearly CO2 neutral; the burnt fuel only releases as much carbondioxid as the plants absorbed during their growth. This is a contribution to meet our own voluntary climate protection objectives."

In comparison to diesel damaging soot emissions can be reduced by approximately fifty percent. "We are lessening the burden on the environment without reducing mobility." Another advantage of vegetable oil is that it is over thirty cents cheaper than diesel and currently costs an average of sixty nine cents per liter.

The six Iveco Eurocargo and Stralis lorries can be fuelled both with vegetable oil and conventional diesel. The vehicles are equipped with a two tank system which enables them to run on vegetable oil also. A small reserve tank has been built in and filled with regular diesel to ensure that the engine can be started. As soon as the engine has reached its operating temperature the system automatically switches to the main tank containing vegetable oil.

The vegetable oil vehicles are part of the Go Green initiative in which Deutsche Post World Net committed to reduce CO2 emissions: under the Go Green name the Group offers environmentally friendly dispatch products and among other things services provided with the help of low emission vehicles. Another of the initiative's objectives is to promote the use of more alternative vehicles and fuels.

With the Go Green initiative Deutsche Post World Net is confirming its innovative lead in the logistics industry. From the beginning of next year all of the Group's innovations will be researched, developed and prepared for the market at the DHL Innovation Center in Troisdorf near Bonn.