SCL endorses ’empty miles’ program

TORONTO — The Supply Chain & Logistics Association of Canada (SCL) says the VICS Empty Miles service will help drive transportation cost efficiencies and support the sustainability efforts of its members.

The Empty Miles service is an industry-led backhaul transport solution for the North American supply chain, created through collaboration between the global standards organization GS1 and the Voluntary Interindustry Commerce Solutions Association (VICS).

"This service successfully addresses a perpetual challenge in the transport supply chain network, namely, reducing empty backhauls," says SCL president Bob Armstrong. "With ongoing market pressures impacting Canadian transport companies, leveraging this important online tool is imperative to increasing productivity, achieving savings and realizing environmental sustainability goals."

The Empty Miles program has been recognized as one of Canada’s top sustainable corporate business initiatives by Walmart Canada’s "Share Green" best practices.

The program matches a company’s trucks and trailers on the return leg of their journey with cargo that can be retrieved or delivered along the return route. In tandem with removing empty transport vehicles from the road, Empty Miles has been shown to curb greenhouse gas emissions, decrease fuel consumption, increase user productivity and save money.

"The service offers an opportunity for companies to share transportation data in a way that they’ve never had visibility to do before," says GS1 president and CEO N. Arthur Smith. "Endorsement from SCL further validates that Empty Miles presents tangible environmental and business benefits for the Canadian transport and logistics industry."

The program was launched in Canada in February 2010. It has been in place in the U.S. since 2009. In one case study released earlier this year, leading American retailer Macy’s realized an increase of 30 backhaul loads per week, or a projected 1,500 loads per year, and a reduction in annualized transportation costs by an average of $25,000, as a result of using the service.