Builders Merchants Journal – BMJ Publishing to Builders Merchants and the UK merchanting industry for more than 95 years
Family run North London-based building and plumbing merchants, MP Moran and Sons Ltd, is implementing a number of new sustainability initiatives.
Focusing on the impact of vehicle journeys and the casual effect this has on the environment, the company is diversifying its fleet to include smaller commercial vehicles, hybrid vehicles and heavy goods trucks.
Its recently expanded 125,000 sq. ft warehouse in Watford acts as a central distribution centre, enabling the merchant to reduce the number of individual deliveries from suppliers each day.
Where possible, the company is increasing the amount of direct-to-site deliveries, currently 10% of all deliveries are completed straight from the supplier to the client.
The company is also trialling two hybrid vehicles, one petrol / electric and one diesel / electric, throughout its company car fleet, whilst also looking to introduce an electric van into the fleet in the near future and using more light commercial vehicles for the delivery of smaller products, particularly within residential areas.
Operations director Kevin Moran said: “As one of the leading building and plumbing merchants in London, we are committed to providing our customers, employees and suppliers with the highest standards in service. We are continuously exploring opportunities to minimise the impact of our operations, particularly concerning transportation.
“We are currently investigating the benefit of alternative fuels, whilst simultaneously undertaking training seminars to challenge and possibly adopt viable cost effective alternative fuels. We have also been able to reduce the number of vehicles on our fleet through a comprehensive review of our routing and scheduling procedures.”
