With ambitious plans to reduce carbon emissions and specific EU targets to meet, the UK is battling to confront climate change and the government is insisting that everyone plays their part.

In the transport sector, ByBox is already doing its bit with an innovative distribution system that provides a greener way to ‘pass the parcel’.

The company’s solution is simple but effective: consolidate multiple deliveries into a single location, transport them in the middle of the night when there is less congestion and less likelihood of delay, and put them in a dropbox for the customer to collect when most convenient.

The result is an efficient and more consumer-friendly service where goods still arrive on time but with much fewer miles travelled, which equates to a much smaller carbon footprint per parcel delivered.

ByBox already makes 20 million deliveries a year in the UK using this system, mainly of parts and equipment urgently required by companies with mobile service teams. But it has ambitious plans to extend the reach of the service to benefit the many more consumers now taking advantage of online retailing and others that require more flexible, convenient and regular delivery methods for all manner of goods.

The key to the existing system and the major component of future plans is the ByBox UK network of electronic boxbanks, which are an advanced version of the left luggage lockers typically found at airports and railways stations. ByBox currently has 18,000 dropboxes at 1,200 locations throughout the UK and is embarking on a programme to install many more at consumer-convenient sites.

To use the system, an individual places an order with, say, a retailer in the normal way but instead of then having to wait at home for delivery, specifies a convenient ByBox location close to their home or work that they visit or pass on a regular basis. ByBox delivers the goods into a box at that location and sends the customer a text message identifying the box and the access code to open it.

Consumers don’t have their own dedicated box – they wouldn’t use it frequently enough. Instead a box is allocated to the parcel when it is delivered.

The consumer visits the box at a time that suits them, and enters their unique collection code to release the door so they can collect their goods. Importantly, they have total flexibility to specify different locations on each occasion in line with their lifestyle plans.

Green savings really add up using ByBox’ system. Once picked and packed, a company’s entire daily sales could be picked up and transported by ByBox in a single move. Here, multiple deliveries are consolidated into the various boxbank locations and added to those from other companies, maximising vehicle usage. And all the driving is done at night – dramatically reducing congestion on the roads during the day.

Not only does the ByBox system stop customers wasting time waiting for goods to be delivered, it removes the need for legions of small vans on British roads during the day trying to make deliveries to people who are not there and inevitably having to make return visits, increasing congestion, fuel consumption and carbon emissions.

Conversely, ByBox deliveries are made at night when the roads are less congested and there is less chance of delays, by vehicles optimising use of space and least distance travel routes, fuel consumption and carbon emissions are reduced.

ByBox has created several test scenarios to illustrate how the system might work in practice and each indicates that potential ‘ParcelMiles’ savings could be considerable –  a 900% improvement compared to current traditional home-delivery methods and even more if return deliveries are factored in. This suggests the company’s green credentials are more than compatible with the government’s target to cut carbon emissions by at least 60% by 2050.

“We already run a greener service than most transport operators and our plans to extend it to more consumers offers the potential to reduce carbon emissions on our roads by a great deal more,” says ByBox Chief Executive Stuart Miller.

“Importantly, as well as the detailed scenarios we use to illustrate ‘ParcelMiles’ savings in distance travelled and hence C02 emissions, we have already designed and introduced a comparable system with La Poste in France that confirms many consumers prefer to have their parcels delivered to a remote location close to their home or work for collection at a convenient time.

“What we envisage here is an extension of the La Poste experience involving more companies and their customers, who both want reliable deliveries at good prices with the added benefits of saving time and reducing carbon emissions.

“We have the technology and the will to make this happen, and I believe the new system could re-shape the way Britain thinks about how it ‘passes the parcel’ in the future,” he adds.