Decarbonising freight gets talked about almost entirely in terms of electric trucks — but for most fleets, including ours, that's the last step, not the first. Industry analysis from 2026 puts it plainly: roughly 70% of achievable emissions reductions come from operational improvements and technology already available today, well before a single electric vehicle enters the picture.
Route optimisation is the clearest example. Software-driven planning that reduces empty miles and improves load matching is now standard practice among the fleets making the most measurable progress on emissions, with some operators cutting empty mileage by single-digit percentages just through smarter backhaul planning — a small-sounding number that adds up fast across thousands of runs a year.
Idle reduction and driver training sit right behind it. Neither requires new capital equipment, just discipline, and both directly cut fuel burn on routes like Mombasa–Nairobi where queuing at ports and border posts has historically meant long stretches of engines running with nothing moving.
Electrification will have its place eventually, but charging infrastructure for heavy trucking is still in its early stages across the region. For now, our approach is the same one the wider industry has landed on: tighten what you can control today — routing, idling, fleet maintenance, fuel-efficient gensets — and treat that as the foundation the next phase gets built on.
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