How To Make Trucking For Business Greener

Julie Starr • June 23, 2021



The environment has become a bigger priority for many businesses, and for very good reason. More consumers are looking for sustainable businesses and many business owners are making green practices a priority. Gas and fossil fuel emission are one of the leading causes of greenhouse gases. However, there are some ways to reduce the emissions that are released into the environment, and most of these ways start small. If you use trucks for your business, here’s how you can make them more eco-friendly.

Why Should I Make Trucking For My Business More Eco-Friendly?

There are several good reasons for doing this. 

More eco-friendly trucking saves you money. One of the main benefits of more sustainable business transport is that it can keep some more money in your pocket, especially if you choose used trucks from somewhere like Piedmont Trucks

It’s better for the planet. Truck drivers ought to try to go green because it’s better for the planet. Greenhouse gases are one of the main causes of global warming. If businesses that use trucks for delivery took a few more precautions to conserve energy and prevent waste, it would go a long way to making a difference. 

It’s easy. It’s less effort than you might think to prioritize sustainable transportation for your business. 

How Can I Make Truck Driving More Eco-Friendly?

If you have vehicles on the road all the time for deliveries, then you might be worried about your greenhouse emissions. With a few simple changes, you can reduce your emissions and make your business more sustainable. 

Plan Your Routes

If you need to make a delivery, plan out how you’re going to get it there. Greener trucking can be easy if you make good use of GPS technology or take the time to work out the optimal route the day before. Getting lost on the way means that your trucks are using up unnecessary gas, which is damaging to the environment. Using more gas also means you have to fill up the tanks more often, which will hurt your transport budget too. 

If you can, try to have your fleet on the road at times of day when there is less traffic. If you know your route, you can work out how much traffic there will be when, and take steps to avoid it. If your trucks are sitting in traffic with the engine running, they will burn through gas quickly. Instead, aim to have any truck you use at a rolling speed throughout the whole route. If you can leave earlier or later to avoid rush hour traffic, then you can drive more efficiently. 

If you’re making a delivery to an area that you’re unfamiliar with, you can estimate the traffic using apps designed for truckers. These apps can be downloaded onto your smartphone, where they will predict traffic and hazards for you. Encourage your drivers to use these so they know where the traffic is and what the fastest route will be. Look for an app that does all this in real-time, so if something changes on a planned route, they’re not live idling and can keep going.

Drive Smarter

One of the simplest ways to make driving a truck more eco-friendly is to encourage more sustainable habits. If your trucks need gas, fill them up in the morning. Fuel expands in the heat, so if you fill up in the morning when the temperature is lower, you can get a little more gas in your tank per gallon than you would if you filled up later in the day when it’s warmer. 

Make your fleet more sustainable by encouraging your drivers to maintain a normal driving speed while they’re on the highway. Stopping and starting makes the engine work harder, so the truck will need more fuel. Leaving the engine idling does the same thing, so if the engine can be turned off, it should be done. 

Go Paperless

A lot of companies with a delivery fleet require their drivers to manually log their hours on paper. This uses up a lot of paper, but you can do it electronically instead. Not all drivers are big fans of these systems, so consider it carefully. Automatically tracking their hours electronically does save on paper though. 

Even if you don’t log hours automatically, encourage your fleet drivers to log their hours on the phone instead of on paper. Saving money on paper products will help the environment too. 

Recycle

If you’re trying to get your truck drivers to think green, recycling should be near the top of your list of priorities. If you can’t go paperless, recycle. 

Fit all your trucks with somewhere to store waste paper and plastic products, even if this is only a clip to hang up a bag. A huge amount of the products that drivers use every day can be recycled instead of thrown away. A lot of truck stops and gas stations have places to drop off recycling too, so it’s easy to do. 

Encourage your fleet of drivers to bring any snacks or food in reusable containers in order to cut down on products in paper or plastic they need to buy when they’re on the road. Put branded canvas bags in the trucks so your drivers don’t need to use plastic ones. Perhaps you could also provide them with branded reusable coffee cups so they don’t need to use a to-go cup that will just end up in a landfill. 

If you have old tires or cartons at the depot, recycle them. Almost everything can be recycled into something else. Some places offer discounts or tax breaks for recycling products. Helping the planet can help your wallet too if you put in the effort. 

Maintain Your Truck

Taking care of your truck can help you care for the planet. Keeping your fleet running well can make it more sustainable. Regular maintenance on a semi-truck reduces the amount of carbon monoxide emissions that it produces. Keeping the engine air filter clean can improve fuel efficiency by up to 10 per cent.

By Julie Starr August 9, 2025
Running an online business can feel like a constant balancing act. You’re trying to grow, keep customers happy, and still have time for yourself. The trick to making it all work long-term is to build habits and systems that last. You don’t need a complicated plan or endless resources to do it either. Here are five straightforward ways to make your business more sustainable without overcomplicating things. Focus on long-term customer relationships If you want your business to last, you need customers who keep coming back. That doesn’t just happen because you’ve got a good product or service. It’s about making people feel valued every time they interact with you. Simple things like remembering their name, following up after a purchase, or sending a quick thank-you email can make a huge difference. People are far more likely to support a business they feel connected to, so keep those relationships personal and genuine rather than purely transactional. Make your marketing work smarter A big part of sustainability is making sure your marketing isn’t draining your time or money. You want it to be efficient and get results. This is where working with seo consultants can help. They know how to make sure people can find your business online without you throwing cash at random ads. Even if you can’t hire someone right now, you can start by focusing on keywords, improving your website’s loading speed, and posting valuable content that answers the questions your customers are already asking. Streamline your products or services It’s tempting to try to offer everything to everyone, but that’s rarely a good idea. The more you offer, the more time, money, and resources you’ll end up using. Instead, focus on the things you do best and make them as good as they can be. When you streamline what you’re selling, you can put all your energy into perfecting it, which makes it easier to maintain quality over time. Customers notice when you consistently deliver something great, and they’ll trust you more for it. Keep an eye on your finances No matter how much you enjoy the creative or customer side of your business, the numbers are what will keep you going long-term. That means knowing what’s coming in, what’s going out, and where you can cut costs without cutting quality. Set yourself a monthly check-in to look at your spending and profits. If you spot something that’s not working financially, don’t leave it for months, hoping it will improve. Tackle it early and you’ll avoid bigger problems down the road. Look after yourself You can’t run a sustainable business if you’re running yourself into the ground. Burnout isn’t just bad for you, it’s bad for your customers and your bottom line. Make sure you’re setting boundaries, taking breaks, and switching off when you can. That might mean scheduling a full day without work every week or turning your phone off after a certain time. The more balanced you are, the better decisions you’ll make, and the easier it will be to keep your business moving forward without constantly feeling like you’re in survival mode. Sustainability in business isn’t about doing one big thing; it’s about making intelligent, consistent choices that build over time. Start small, keep checking in on your progress, and before you know it, your business will feel a lot steadier and more future-proof than it did before.
By Julie Starr August 8, 2025
Are you hoping to build a heavy industry business? It’s the kind of company that can have globally sweeping positive and negative effects. On the one hand, you’re contributing to the industry, ensuring there’s enough supply to meet demand, and you can do your best to operate in a sustainable way that prioritizes the environment. But on the other hand, the heavy industry has long been the most significant business polluter in the world. Despite advancements in industry technology and usage, their ranking relative to other sectors, such as food and beverage , and shipping and logistics, has remained unchanged as of 2025. Requiring extensive use of large, heavy, and expensive machinery, the fumes produced by heavy-duty factories in sectors like mining, aerospace, nautical, and metal production regularly cause harm to both human and animal life. It’s why anyone interested in investing or scaling within an industry like this needs to focus on their company’s carbon footprint. There are various ways to ensure you’re limiting your harmful output and waste, and you’ll want to use as many as possible within your operation. Check out our recommendations below. Work with Green Suppliers No matter what stage you sit at in the hypothetical supply chain, you’re likely to source at least part of your overall production material from a supplier. If that’s not the case, you’ll still need to work with companies that provide machinery and equipment, as well as replacement parts for these industrial items. All in all, to make as sustainable a choice as possible, you’ll want to commit to working with a ‘green’ supplier who makes eco-conscious choices at every step. Eco-friendly suppliers will strive to both implement sustainable practices within their production line, as well as provide sustainably made and/or extracted materials. The products and/or parts they send out are likely to be recyclable when they reach their end-of-life period, or they’ll run a scheme where you can send old or broken parts back to them. Offset Your Carbon Emissions Offsetting carbon emissions converts the waste output from your operations into something more positive. If you’re interested in programs like this , you can use official government platforms or climate charity websites to contribute. You’ll be able to find a variety of projects that have been undertaken to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, and they’ll be located in various regions across the world. You can choose to patronise as many of them as you wish, but if you want to focus on specific types, you’ll also be able to do so. When approaching a program like this, it’s usually best to offset month by month, as this helps you stay on top of your carbon footprint. Be sure to invest in as much carbon removal per tonne as your business has potentially contributed to the atmosphere in the last month. But before you go any further, there’s one thing you need to keep in mind here: Carbon offsetting is just one sustainable practice you can turn to, but it’s not the only one your business will ever need to use. Yes, it’s one of the most sustainable practices a heavy industry business can invest in. But that’s only true when it’s partnered with real-time carbon-lowering efficiencies within day-to-day operations. Repair, Rather Than Throw Away Repairing is the best option if a repair is possible. This should be the first step when evaluating old or broken-down equipment. If it can be salvaged, it should be. Otherwise, you’ll have to replace the equipment in question. Not only is that expensive, but it also means more waste to manage. And not all heavy industry tech can be recycled. Sometimes it’s potentially hazardous and needs to be disposed of carefully, and this could have harsh impacts on the surrounding environment. Repairing is your best bet, at least 80% of the time. You can get back up and running faster, and you don’t need to account for a large investment at short notice. And more equipment can be repaired than you might think. It’s not just small, singular parts that can be pulled out. Entire internal systems in even large vehicles, such as freighter ships, can be replaced by secondary parts. A marine logistics provider or deep-sea fishing operator would save a lot of money just by ordering a Cummins Rebuild Kit for one of their vessels. Deciding to put the ship out of commission and eventually scrapping it will contribute to the large-scale waste common in companies like this. Aiming to repair and limit environmental damage will get that same boat back onto the waters in seaworthy condition. Operate with Lower Emission Logistics Shipping your products to businesses and markets always generates a carbon footprint. Unless you’re operating only within the local area and you’re able to transport products back and forth on foot, this is an unavoidable issue. And seeing as you’re a heavy industry business, that’s not very likely. But some shipping options are better than others. Indeed, there are low-emission choices to be made, and you’ll want to look into these logistic partners only. You’ll likely find that air travel is a total no-go zone. Alternatives to this are long-haul road transportation or a traditional shipping company that operates via sea. Yes, even trucking your products over land generates a lot less carbon waste that can damage the environment than flying something! Staying Green as a Heavy Industry Player Working sustainably within the heavy industry is a career-long project. You’ll need to continually make moves to consider what could be streamlined into something greener and less consuming next. In the end, this can help your long-term costs decrease and stay low. Fewer risky investments, fewer fees from environmental bodies, and more productive time within your business. So, it’s not going to be easy, but it will be worth it