Today (Thursday 8 March) sees more than 130 commercial fleets taking part in an environmental impact survey for the Department for Transport (DfT), which is being carried out by SCALA Consulting.

The results of the survey will provide information on vehicle efficiency, which will shed light on the environmental impact of grocery distribution and the implications for 'food miles'. The data wil include how full the vehicles are and how many miles they run empty. The survey runs for 24 hours.

As well as providing businesses with benchmarking criteria, the study will give the DfT an overview of transport efficiency in England and Wales. It will also be of interest to a general public increasingly concerned with the number of food miles travelled by the produce they buy and consume.

There are more details about the project in this SCALA Consulting press release.