Regulations to reduce road vehicle emissions mean that logistics fleets are facing the challenge of transitioning from traditional fossil fuel powered vehicles to zero-emissions vehicles. For fleets to manage the transition effectively they must understand the costs and business models of zero-emission vehicles. Whilst legislation sets out the long-term deadline for the adoption of zero-emission vehicles it does not define the path of transition. Without commercial and technical understanding driving the transition to zero-emission vehicles there will be delays in uptake of new technologies, missed opportunities for reductions in harmful emissions, and fleets will incur unnecessary costs. Dynamon can help to solve this problem. Dynamon is a team of data scientists and engineers that build data analytics tools to help logistics companies optimise their procurement decisions to minimise costs and reduce their impact on the environment. In this project Dynamon will create a software tool that will enable fleets to automatically assess the optimum zero-emission vehicle specifications and charging infrastructure requirements to perform their specific operation.This tool will be usable by existing employees of commercial fleets, without expertise in data analytics or vehicle engineering, to provide them with accurate and actionable intelligence enabling them to make informed procurement decisions that minimise total-cost-of-ownership. The tools that Dynamon will create will combine zero-emission vehicle laboratory test data with multiple forms of geospatial data that describe the fleet's unique operation and environmental conditions. By combining these data sources Dynamon will build a digital twin of potential zero-emission vehicles that will accurately forecast key metrics including energy consumption, range, cargo potential, charging requirements, etc allowing the optimum vehicle for the fleet's conditions to be confidently purchased. Dynamon will work closely with fleet partners Wincanton PLC, Sainsbury's PLC and ASDA to ensure that the proposed solution is feasible, meets the needs of commercial fleets, and will have a credible business model to scale both nationally and internationally. Hampshire County Council will provide support and promote this tool to large fleets as part of their ongoing commitment to reduce harmful emissions in their local areas.

Public description Regulations to reduce road vehicle emissions mean that logistics fleets are facing the challenge of transitioning from traditional fossil fuel powered vehicles to zero-emissions vehicles. For fleets to manage the transition effectively they must understand the costs and business models of zero-emission vehicles. Whilst legislation sets out the long-term deadline for the adoption of zero-emission vehicles it does not define the path of transition. Without commercial and technical understanding driving the transition to zero-emission vehicles there will be delays in uptake of new technologies, missed opportunities for reductions in harmful emissions, and fleets will incur unnecessary costs. Dynamon can help to solve this problem. Dynamon is a team of data scientists and engineers that build data analytics tools to help logistics companies optimise their procurement decisions to minimise costs and reduce their impact on the environment. In this project Dynamon will create a software tool that will enable fleets to understand the total-cost-of-ownership (TCO) of different zero-emission vehicles in their specific operation. This tool will be usable by existing employees of commercial fleets, without expertise in data analytics or vehicle engineering, to provide them with accurate and actionable intelligence enabling them to make informed procurement decisions. The tools that Dynamon will create will combine zero-emission vehicle laboratory test data with multiple forms of geospatial data that describe the fleet's unique operation and environmental conditions. By combining these data sources Dynamon will build a digital twin of potential zero-emission vehicles that will accurately forecast key metrics such as energy consumption, range, cargo potential, charging requirements, etc allowing the optimum vehicle for the fleet's conditions to be confidently purchased. Dynamon will work closely with fleet partners Wincanton PLC and Sainsbury's PLC to ensure that the proposed solution is feasible, meets the needs of commercial fleets, and will have a credible business model to scale both nationally and internationally. Local councils Test Valley Borough Council and Hampshire County Council will provide support and promote this tool to large fleets as part of their ongoing commitment to reduce harmful emissions in their local areas.

"In 2016 the UK road freight industry spent £5.4 billion on fuel and released around 18.7 million tonnes carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. By improving vehicle efficiency there is significant scope to reduce emissions whilst simultaneously saving fleets money. Unfortunately, optimising a fleet is a complex challenge and most commercial transport companies struggle to achieve this. Unlike consumer cars, commercial vehicles can be optimised for their exact use-cases. Each efficiency solution behaves differently on different vehicles and in different operations. Consequently no one-size-fits-all approach to optimisation is possible and this extreme complexity has resulted in inefficient commercial vehicles on UK roads. To solve this problem Dynamon is developing a big data analytics service to identify optimum areas of efficiency improvement for transport companies. Dynamon presents this information on a simple and accessible webpage which demonstrates how much money these improvements can potentially save transport companies. Based on Dynamon's current analysis of 56 million km of vehicle data, the largest opportunities for improved efficiency, in commercial vehicles, come from improved aerodynamics, weight reduction and improved tyre performance. This is applicable for both fossil fuelled and electric vehicles. Dynamon is currently supported by an Innovate UK OLEV project to provide efficiency recommendations to fleets for improved aerodynamics. The first objective of this project is to expand Dynamon's functionality to recommend efficiencies from improved tyre performance and reduced vehicle weight. The second objective of this project is to develop a benchmarking service enabling fleets to compare their performance within their industry sector to incentivise improved efficiency. Initial trials of Dynamon's current capability by leading UK transport companies has identified significant fuel cost and emissions savings - which they are now pursuing. There is currently no service that incentivises fleets to improve efficiency from benchmarking and then demonstrates to them how to achieve it. This project will accelerate the development of this service."

The ACT project will develop a web based application for performing virtual aerodynamic simulations of HGVs. We usually conduct these studies on Formula One racing cars to help designers make them go faster; instead of making lorries faster, we are interested in reducing the amount of fuel they use and reducing their emissions so they do less harm to the environment. Using technology known as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), the app will calculate how well a lorry cuts through air as it is driven along. Usually, to use CFD you need expensive computers and software. You also need skilled engineers with specialist knowledge to use them. Our app will be jargon free and work in a web browser so the maximum number of people possible can use it. To find how aerodynamic a lorry is, users simply pick from the range of different cabs, trailers, and modifications then click ‘Simulate’, sit back and wait for the computer to work out how efficient that combination is. Giving haulage companies the ability to try out different configurations of HVG quickly and easily will help them to pick the most efficient cabs and trailers to use, dramatically reducing the cost of shipping and reducing greenhouse emissions, making the environment healthier for everyone.