Frozen warehousing specialist Partner Logistics, Franklin Park, Ill., teamed up with Birds Eye UK and DHL, Plantation, Fla., to take part in a new project that uses double-deck trailers to transport pallets of frozen goods from the warehouse to the distribution center.

Double-deck trailers are said to significantly maximize load capacity by holding almost 50% more pallets than a conventional truck. Plus, they have been proven to improve the efficiency of the supply chain as well as reduce road miles and carbon emissions.

The trial period for the project, which ran for 10 weeks, was based on the 80-mile journey between the Partner Logistics cold store in Wisbech, England, and a customer retail distribution center in Daventry, England. So far, the green supply chain project has saved more than 4,500kg of CO2 emissions, which is equivalent to taking 43 trucks off the road.

“Double-deck trailers allow us to look at the best possible opportunities to improve the efficiency of our deliveries for our customers, whilst reducing our road miles,” says Graham Watling, distribution manager for Birds Eye UK. “In our best week so far, we have been able to take the equivalent of eight trucks off the road, saving over 300 liters of diesel. These savings are a step in the right direction when it comes to achieving our goal of reducing carbon emissions by 15% by 2020, and we couldn’t have done this without the help of Partner Logistics, DHL and our end customers.”

“We are very pleased to have worked with Birds Eye and DHL on this energy saving project. All of our European warehouses have been built with a focus on sustainability, and we proactively try to reduce carbon emissions in any way we can,” says Eelco Schnabel, commercial director at Partner Logistics.

Now that the double-deck trailers are running regularly on this route, Birds Eye estimates that they will see a reduction of 2% in their annual total road miles. Plans to extend the project to include further routes are underway.